TPO 36 Integrated Writing Task

The reading passage talked about how cloud seeding was effective in preventing crops from hail damage, and several pieces of evidence were given in support of this argument. Although the points seemed reasonable, the lecturer cast doubts on them for the following reasons.
To begin with, the lecturer agreed with the experiment in the article that the water vapor could form light snow rather than hail with silver iodide. Nevertheless, the lecturer argued that silver iodide probably would halt all precipitation including rain and snow, which could lead to drought and cause more damage to the crops. Thereby, the lecturer believed that some negative risks might follow cloud seeding.
Second, based on the evidence regarding the effectiveness of cloud seeding in Asian countries, the author proposed that cloud seeding should also be practical in the United States. Conversely, the lecturer argued that it was a misconception. This was because the evidence mentioned in the article was found in urban areas which were suitable for cloud seeding due to air pollution. As a result, the lecturer suggested that cloud seeding might not be able to work in the unpolluted farm region in America.
Last but not least, despite the fact that the local study mentioned in the passage showed that employing cloud seeding could reduce hail damage on farms in the central United States, the lecturer acutely identified the weakness in this study. The lecturer attributed this consequence to the natural and various weather since the hail damage in the surrounding of the place where the study was conducted decreased as well. Accordingly, she proposed that the cloud seeding probably had nothing to do with this result.