1. In Asia, where palm trees are nonnative, the trees' flowers have traditionally been pollinated by hand, which has kept palm fruit productivity unnaturally low. When weevils known to be efficient pollinators of palm flowers were introduced into Asia in 1980, palm fruit productivity increased-by up to 50 percent in some areas-but then decreased sharply in 1984.
Which of the following statements, if true, would best explain the 1984 decrease in productivity?
(A) Prices for palm fruit fell between 1980 and 1984 following the rise in production and a concurrent fall in demand.
(B) Imported trees are often more productive than native trees because the imported ones have left behind their pests and diseases in their native lands.
(C) Rapid increases in productivity tend to deplete trees of nutrients needed for the development of the fruit-producing female flowers.
(D) The weevil population in Asia remained at approximately the same level between 1980 and 1984.
(E) Prior to 1980 another species of insect pollinated the Asian palm trees, but not as efficiently as the species of weevil that was introduced in 1980.
2. Small-business groups are lobbying to defeat proposed federal legislation that would substantially raise the federal minimum wage. This opposition is surprising since the legislation they oppose would, for the first time, exempt all small businesses from paying any minimum wage.
Which of the following, if true, would best explain the opposition of small-business groups to the proposed legislation?
(A) Under the current federal minimum-wage law, most small businesses are required to pay no less than the minimum wage to their employees.
(B) In order to attract workers, small companies must match the wages offered by their larger competitors, and these competitors would not be exempt under the proposed laws.
(C) The exact number of companies that are currently required to pay no less than the minimum wage but that would be exempt under the proposed laws is unknown.
(D) Some states have set their own minimum wages-in some cases, quite a bit above the level of the minimum wage mandated by current federal law-for certain key industries.
(E) Service companies make up the majority of small businesses and they generally employ more employees per dollar of revenues than do retail or manufacturing businesses.
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