CXD逻辑14,N哥请进!

gedn01

Hardin argued that grazing land held in common (that is, open to any user) would always be used less carefully than private grazing land. Each rancher would be tempted to overuse common land because the benefits would accrue to the individual, while the costs of reduced land quality that results from overuse would be spread among all users. But a study comparing 217 million acres of common grazing land with 433 million acres of private grazing land showed that the common land was in better condition.
Which of the following ,if true and known by the ranchers,would best help explain the result of the study?
a) with private grazing land,both the costs and the benefits of overuse fall to the individual user.
b) The cost in reduced land quality that is attributable to any individual user is less easily measured with common land than it is with private land
c) An individual who overuses common grazing land might be able to achieve highter returns than other users can,with the result that he or she would obtain a competitive advantage.
d) If one user of common land overuses it even slightly ,the other users are likely to do so even more,with the consequence that the costs to each user outweight the benefits
e) There are more acres of grazing land hel privately than there are held in common.



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amberdeng

C

Hardin argued that grazing land held in common (that is, open to any user) would always be used less carefully than private grazing land. Each rancher would be tempted to overuse common land because the benefits would accrue to the individual, while the costs of reduced land quality that results from overuse would be spread among all users. But a study comparing 217 million acres of common grazing land with 433 million acres of private grazing land showed that the common land was in better condition.
The answer to which of the following questions would be most useful in evaluating the significance, in relation to Hardin's claim, of the study described above?
(A) Did any of the ranchers whose land was studied use both common and private land
(B) Did the ranchers whose land was studied tend to prefer using common land over using private land for grazing
(C) Was the private land that was studied of comparable quality to the common land before either was used for grazing?
(D) Were the users of the common land that was studied at least as prosperous as the users of the private land
(E) Were there any owners of herds who used only common land, and no private land, for grazing
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-- by 会员 gedn01 (2010/2/18 12:26:35)

gedn01

不好意思，纠正了一下抄错的题目

加菲猫猫

I picked D at the first glance then I recognized that I missed the word 'significance'. I go with C finally.

The question is that which statement helps to evaluate the value rather than importance of the study. In another word, whether the conclusion of the study is valuable or not. The argument above leave open the possibility that the comparison is not made on a fair basis, that is the common land was kept better before overused than the private land. This is clarified by choice C.