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  3. Economist: Paying extra for fair-trade coffee—coffee labeled with the Fairtrade

Economist: Paying extra for fair-trade coffee—coffee labeled with the Fairtrade

游客2025-02-25  9
问题 Economist: Paying extra for fair-trade coffee—coffee labeled with the Fairtrade logo—is intended to help poor farmers, because they receive a higher price for the fair-trade coffee they grow. But this practice may hurt more farmers in developing nations than it helps. By raising average prices for coffee, it encourages more coffee to be produced than consumers want to buy. This lowers prices for non-fair-trade coffee and thus lowers profits for non-fair-trade coffee farmers.
To evaluate the strength of the economist’s argument, it would be most helpful to know which of the following?
选项 A、Whether there is a way of alleviating the impact of the increased average prices for coffee on non-fair-trade coffee farmers’ profits
B、What proportion of coffee farmers in developing nations produce fair-trade coffee
C、Whether many coffee farmers in developing nations also derive income from other kinds of farming
D、Whether consumers should pay extra for fair-trade coffee if doing so lowers profits for non-fair-trade coffee farmers
E、How fair-trade coffee farmers in developing nations could be helped without lowering profits for non-fair-trade coffee farmers
答案 B
解析 Argument Evaluation
Situation Poor farmers receive higher prices for fair-trade coffee. But paying extra for fair-trade coffee lowers prices for non-fair-trade coffee and thus lowers profits for non-fair-trade coffee farmers
Reasoning What would be most helpful to know to evaluate how well the economist’s observations support the conclusion that buying fair-trade coffee hurts more farmers in developing nations than it helps? The economist suggests that buying fair-trade coffee benefits farmers who grow it because they receive higher prices, but that it hurts non-fair-trade coffee farmers by reducing their profits. So to knew whether the practice hurts more farmers in developing nations than it helps, it would be helpful to know whether developing nations have more farmers who produce non-fair-trade coffee than produce fair-trade coffee.
A Even if there were some potential way of alleviating the negative impact from buying fair-trade coffee on non-fair-trade coffee farmers, it still could be that the practice hurts more developing-nation farmers than it helps. Alleviating the negative impact does not entail that there is no negative impact.
B Correct. If fewer than half of these farmers produce fair-trade coffee, then the economist’s observations do suggest that buying fair-trade coffee hurts more coffee farmers in developing nations than it helps. But if more than half do, those observations suggest the contrary.
C Although knowing this could be helpful in determining how intensely many farmers are economically affected by people buying fair-trade coffee, it is not helpful in determining whether more farmers are hurt than are helped.
D The argument’s conclusion is only about the economic impact of buying fair-trade coffee, not about how consumers should or should not respond to that impact.
E Knowing how the fair-trade coffee farmers could potentially be helped without hurting the other coffee farmers is irrelevant to assessing whether the practice of buying fair-trade coffee hurts more developing -nation farmers than it helps.
The correct answer is B.
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