Free GMAT Practice Question

Question 1 of 1
ID: GMAT-VR-CR-004
Section: GMAT Verbal Reasoning - Critical Reasoning (CR)
Topic: Weaken
Difficulty level: Hard

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The shallow bay at Torrens Point once held dense beds of eelgrass. The beds thinned sharply during the 1990s and have not recovered. Marine biologists blame fine sediment: after farmland along the Aldwin River was drained, the river began carrying far more silt into the bay, and silt clouds the water through which eelgrass must gather light. Farmers along the Aldwin reply that the bay's water grew warmer over the same years, and that the warming alone accounts for the loss.

Which of the following, if true, most strongly supports the biologists' explanation over the one the farmers offer?

AAlong a stretch of coast that has warmed more than Torrens Point has, and where no river carries farm silt, eelgrass beds have thinned just as sharply.

BMeasurements confirm that the Aldwin now carries considerably more fine sediment into the bay than it did in the 1980s.

CThe drainage of farmland along the Aldwin was paid for under a national programme that ended in 1996.

DSince the 1990s the water of the open sea outside the bay has warmed more than the water inside the bay has.

EIn a nearby bay that warmed as much as Torrens Point but takes in no silt-bearing river, the eelgrass beds are as dense as ever.

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