T-7-Q11,没找到！！请教！

In 1992 outlaw fishing boats began illegally harvesting lobsters from the territorial waters of the country of Belukia. Soon after, the annual tonnage of lobster legally harvested in Belukian waters began declining; in 1996, despite there being no reduction in the level of legal lobster fishing activity, the local catch was 9,000 tons below pre-1992 levels. It is therefore highly likely that the outlaw fishing boats harvested about 9,000 tons of lobster illegally that year.

Which of the following is an assumption on which the argument depends?

1. The illegal lobster harvesting was not so expensive that the population of catchable lobsters in Belukia’s territorial waters had sharply declined by 1996

2. The average annual lobster catch, in tons, of an outlaw fishing boat is has increased steadily since 1992.

3. Outlaw fishing boats do not , as a group, harvest more lobsters than do licensed lobster-fishing boats.

4. The annual legal lobster harvest in Belukia in 1996 was not significantly less than 9,000 tons.

5. A significant proportion of Belukia’s operators of licensed lobster-fishing boats were out of business between 1992 and 1996

answer: A

why?

我也是，刚做完这题，为什么答案是A啊？

我连A答案的意思还没有弄明白呢，...so expensive that the population of XXX ...had sharply declined by 1996。忽然说价钱贵，跟population declined 有啥关系啊？糊涂了！

望大NN打救啊！！

that 后面才是重点，不管是什么原因，只要鱼少了，肯定就是对conclusion的weaken了

所以这道题是not weaken的题……

96年比92少了9000ton的lobsters，结论说outlaw fishing boats harvested about 9,000 tons of lobster illegally that year，也就是说这9000ton都是由于illegal harvest少的。假设默认illegal的行为是导致lobster减少的唯一原因，换句话说就是排除了一切他因。正确答案可以说：illegal harvest是唯一原因，也可以说没有其他原因导致结论的发生（减少）

1. The illegal lobster harvesting was not so expensive that the population of catchable lobsters in Belukia’s territorial waters had sharply declined by 1996 -------96年lobster的可捕获量没有减少，即排除一种他因，如果去掉not, 起weaken作用

hope this helps

the population of catchable lobsters had declined by 96, 那么是不是就是说总的抓到的数量急剧减少。但是前半句是说illegal lobsters harvesting is not so expensive，那不就是说illegal 不贵，然后很多人会选择那个方式。 但貌似被我这么一理解好像就变矛盾了。。。

请求帮助~~~  谢谢~~！！！！！！

谢谢楼上两位大牛指教，顿悟了哦！！

不好意思啊。。。我想问下，为什么这道题我这里的版本不是expensive 而是extensive。。。

谢谢~！！