Option B and D explaination
Country B’s oil production is not sufficient to meet its domestic demand. In order to sharply reduce its dependence on foreign sources of oil, Country B recently embarked on a program requiring all of its automobiles to run on ethanol in addi- tion to gasoline. Combined with its oil production, Country B produces enough ethanol from agricultural by-products to meet its current demand for energy. Which of the following must be assumed in order to conclude that Country B will succeed in its plan to reduce its dependence on foreign oil?
(A) Electric power is not a superior alternative to ethanol in supplementing auto- mobile gasoline consumption.
(B) In Country B, domestic production of ethanol is increasing more quickly than domestic oil production.
(C) Ethanol is suitable for the heating of homes and other applications aside from automobiles.
(D) In Country B, gasoline consumption is not increasing at a substantially higher rate than domestic oil and ethanol production.
(E) Ethanol is as efficient as gasoline in terms of mileage per gallon when used as fuel for automobiles.
And why D is correct?
As per my understanding the one line map is below:
” Production of Oil is not enough to fulfill demand” >>>>>> Country B switch demand to other energy sources ( Gasoline Plus Ethanol) to fulfill demand.
Now when we look the options
Easy POE are A, C and E.
Now in between option B and D.
D would be the correct answer as it talks about the demand and supply. D will support the argument as when you aware that the demand < supply, than only Country B would be able to succeed else not.
where as B talks about only production of ethanol >> production of oil. Does this bridge the gap between Premises and Conclusion? No.. What if the production of ethanol is high but not more than the required demand?
Also, if you negate the option D, it will break the argument.
Hope this helps…
This is my way to look the answer. I am not sure about others..
Apoorv’s explanation is correct.
If we negate option D, gasoline consumption IS increasing at a substantially higher rate than domestic oil and ethanol production. If this is true, even though country B will produce ethanol enough to meet the current demand, the increasing demand of gasoline will necessitate oil imports from other countries.