The answer for Question 19 is option D. Here I am firstly unable to understand why this option. If this is the case then how to infer the statement “Fungi cannot as yet be cultivated in the absence of a living root” as in relation to production in laboratories.
And for question 18 the answer is option E . But the option E is the only option which can utilize the information given in the passage? Bcz how is it possible for a person to know about a state official alerting farmers or a researcher who identifies a project for funding?
For Question #19 you are going to want to watch Greg’s videos on Dedicated Critical Reasoning and Inference questions. Don’t worry, this is a typical inference question that is easy to solve if you are methodical and familiar with the process. See: https://new.gregmat.com/course/dedicated-critical-reasoning
Long story short, as you have highlighted in purple, the passage gives two reasons for lack of research progression:
Plants don’t show damage, so it’s hard to identify specimens
The fungi needs certain special things in order to be cultivated
Because it’s an “inference” question, you are going to have to make a logical leap here (see videos). The logical leap here would be that fungi requires special conditions to create, but scientists in labs can’t always create these conditions out of thin air.
There is nothing near the purple text about funding, application, idenification of plain old fungi (although it does mention the identification of damaged fungi), or cost/scarcity. So you can also get D through Process of Elimination.
See: