Early post-Pleistocene hunter-gatherers of the Middle East and Europe sought to compensate for shortages of the animals and plants on...
GMAT Critical Reasoning : (CR) Questions
Early post-Pleistocene hunter-gatherers of the Middle East and Europe sought to compensate for shortages of the animals and plants on which they subsisted by learning to plant crops and domesticate animals. But such agricultural practices often required clearing the forest lands that those animals and plants had needed in order to flourish.
The statements above most logically lead to which of the following as a conclusion?
Passage Visualization
| Passage Statement | Visualization and Linkage |
|---|---|
| Early post-Pleistocene hunter-gatherers of the Middle East and Europe sought to compensate for shortages of the animals and plants on which they subsisted by learning to plant crops and domesticate animals. | Establishes: Initial problem and solution attempt Concrete Example:
|
| But such agricultural practices often required clearing the forest lands that those animals and plants had needed in order to flourish. | Establishes: Contradiction in the solution Concrete Example:
|
| Overall Implication | Self-Defeating Solution Paradox: Hunter-gatherers faced a circular problem:
|
Valid Inferences
Inference: The hunter-gatherers' solution to food shortages was self-defeating because it destroyed the very resources they were trying to replace.
Supporting Logic: Since the hunter-gatherers adopted agriculture to compensate for shortages of wild animals and plants, and since agricultural practices required clearing the forest lands that those same animals and plants needed to flourish, the solution directly undermined the original food sources. Therefore, the agricultural solution worked against its own purpose by eliminating the habitat necessary for the wild resources it was meant to supplement.
Clarification Note: The passage establishes this logical contradiction but does not specify whether agriculture ultimately provided a net benefit or loss - only that it created this inherent conflict between the solution and the original problem.
This choice discusses advantages for some species and extinction for others, but the passage doesn't provide information about which specific species benefited or went extinct. We only know that agriculture cleared forest lands needed by the animals and plants that hunter-gatherers originally relied on. The passage doesn't support conclusions about differential impacts on various species.
The passage makes no mention of tool-making techniques or technological advances. While agriculture might logically require tools, this inference goes beyond what we can conclude from the given information. The passage focuses on the relationship between food shortages, agricultural adoption, and habitat destruction.
The passage doesn't discuss settlement patterns or whether people stayed in one location. The focus is entirely on the food production methods and their environmental consequences, not on lifestyle changes related to mobility or permanent settlement.
Family structure changes are completely outside the scope of this passage. The argument centers on the relationship between agricultural practices and their impact on the natural resources that agriculture was meant to replace, not on social organizational changes.
This correctly captures the logical progression in the passage. Hunter-gatherers faced shortages (the problem), adopted agriculture to compensate (initially helped mitigate), but agriculture required clearing forest lands needed by the original animals and plants (eventually exacerbated the problem). This creates the paradox where the solution potentially worsens the original issue by destroying the habitat for the very resources it was meant to supplement.