Questions 9-12 refer to the following passage.

The speculation by economists refers to which of the following beliefs?

a. The government’s belief that the crisis would one day have ended, even if the government had not moved to support agriculture

b. Economists’ belief that the government was mistaken in supporting agriculture over industry

c. Economists’ belief that the scissors crisis could have been averted without government intervention

d. Economists’ belief that the price disparity would have eventually resolved itself without action by the government

e. The government’s belief that agricultural and industrial prices would have balanced each other, but not in time to stop a crisis from occurring

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The harshness and extreme unpopularity of the "war communism" system imposed in Russia from 1918 to 1921 led the Soviet leader- ship to adopt the New Economic Policy (NEP) in March of 1921. Under the NEP, the prodna- log system of tax in kind was begun, and a semi-market economy was allowed to develop alongside government control of what Lenin had called the "commanding heights industries." (10) When the NEP was abandoned in 1927, the state declared it a failure as a result of several adverse events: the scissors crisis, the goods famine, and speculation by "NEPmen." Line (5) The scissors crisis of 1923 was caused by (15) high industrial prices relative to agricultural prices. When these two sets of prices are graphed, the wide disparity resembles an open pair of scissors. The government had been spurring industry but felt that this price dispar- (20) ity had to be immediately addressed. To do so, it adopted policies favoring agriculture. There is some speculation by economists, however, that the scissors would have closed on their own.