#12 - Regina: The additional revenue obtained from leasing

[Administrator]

Please post your questions below!

[jmann]

Hi, I got this question right but when I went back to look at it again I switched my answer from D to B because I think I just thought a little bit too hard. Can you just clear up for me how we know that it is D and not B.

[Jeremy Press]

Hi jmann,

Both Regina and Amal are focused on the future effects of the new revenue the government is getting by leasing toll bridges to private investors. They reach differing conclusions about whether one of those effects will be to free up money to assist with budgetary shortfalls in non-transportation areas of the budget. But notice, each one sticks strictly to answering this factual, and future-oriented, question: "What effect will the new money have on non-transportation areas of the budget?" Neither speaker makes a judgment about what is true of the budget at present, and neither speaker expresses an opinion on whether the current situation is good enough or not good enough. Answer choice B is rooted in the present (not the future), and it expresses an opinion about whether the present situation is good enough: "the amount of money currently allocated to transportation is adequate." Since we don't know the speakers' opinions about the present state of the transportation budget (because the speakers are focused solely on future effects), we don't know whether they disagree about answer choice B.

Answer choice D is a better choice, because it addresses specifically that question that I identified above ("What effect will the new money have on non-transportation areas of the budget?"). We know the speakers' views of answer choice D: Amal will agree with answer choice D, he specifically states the new money will help reduce budget shortfalls in other areas (because existing funds will be reallocated). Regina will disagree with answer choice D, because she says the leases will not be used to reduce shortfalls in other areas.

I hope this helps!

Jeremy

[yrresnik]

Hey. I chose d as the lesser of all evils. I got stuck though bc I thought disagree qs are like MBT qs unless it’s says “most strongly supported” or something like that. And here I saw a little gap bc it could be Regina will agree that the new revenue will cause EXISTING funds to move to other areas she never talks about EXISTING funds moving she only talks about
“so the LEASES will not be USED to reduce shortfalls in other areas”

The hint I had to choose d is Amal says “thus the new revenue....”. Which sounds like she’s interpreting Regina to be disagreeing with that.
So it’s like a MBT disagree question on Amal interpretation of Regina
??
Thanks in advance

[KelseyWoods]

Hi yyresnik!

I understand your frustration with this answer choice as Regina is not 100% explicit about existing funds. However, reallocating existing funds due to the additional revenue coming in from the leases could still be described as "the leases being used to reduce shortfalls in other budget areas." The leases, as Amal states, could be reducing budget shortfalls in other areas by shoring up the transportation budget and freeing those funds. Regina does not think the leases will be used to reduce shortfalls in other budget areas so she must not agree that the leases will be used to shore up the transportation budget and free existing funds.

The truth is, whether it's a "most strongly supported" or a "must be true" type of question, you're always choosing the best answer choice out of the ones they've provided. So you can't really go wrong with the "lesser of all evils" strategy!

Hope this helps!

Best,
Kelsey

[racoonprinter]

Why is the answer not A?

[Frank Peter]

Hi racoonprinter,

The reason it isn't (A) is because that doesn't really seem to be a point of disagreement between them. It sounds like they would both actually AGREE that there will be shortfalls in budget areas other than transportation. What they do with the transportation budget might REDUCE the budget shortfalls, but there will be shortfalls nonetheless.

[momgoingbacktoschool]

The agree/disagree test described in the LR Bible is what helped me pick the correct answer on this one. If you have the bible, I recommend looking again at the explanation of the agree/disagree test and then look at this question again.