CR: Because of a recent drought in Florida

[vikas.panghal]

Because of a recent drought in Florida during the orange-growing season, the price of Florida oranges this season will be three times the usual price. This will drive up the cost of producing orange juice and thus push up the price of orange juice for the consumer.

Which of the following, if true, most seriously weakens the argument above?

A. The recent drought was not as severe as scientists had predicted.
B. Only a small percentage of the oranges used to make orange juice are grown in Florida.
C. Other ingredients are used in the production of orange juice.
D. Last year the price of oranges was actually lower than the average price over the past ten years.
E. The price of oranges will eventually be $0.48 per crate.

OA is B.

I got this question in one of the princeton review papers.

I chose C because according to choice C, it doesn't matter whether the cost of production of Oranges will affect the orange juice price as ingredient are used in making juice.

Please correct me if I'm wrong. B is the second probable answer.

[wgrau2]

First of all, posted in the wrong area imo.

B is the right answer here. You are looking for what msot seriously weakens the argument. Sure, there might be other ingredients in OJ, but who the keck cares? It doesn't say how much the cost of the other ingredients are, or how they factor into production. It could have a small impact on the the cost of OJ, but "B" has the most significant impact. If most of the OJ crop comes from a state other than FL, how does a poor florida orange crop affect OJ prices? With the statement from "B" you can consider the two orange crops as separate entities.

[RonPurewal]

i will move this post to where it belongs.

the above poster is correct: choice (c) is not very good. unless the orange juice is made MOSTLY or ENTIRELY of "other ingredients", this statement is basically irrelevant.
since the majority ingredient of orange juice is, obviously, oranges, the cost of oranges will still have a huge effect on the cost of the juice.

if the florida crop, on the other hand, represents only a small proportion of the oranges from which orange juice is made, then it will have a correspondingly small effect on the price of that juice.