- PowerScore Staff
- Posts: 8950
- Joined: Feb 02, 2011
- Sat Mar 28, 2015 11:00 pm
#35654
Complete Question Explanation
Must Be True. The correct answer choice is (A)
Despite the testmakers’ efforts to obfuscate this stimulus, it consists fundamentally of a very simple
argument. The first premise can be represented as follows:
Widespread belief
Growth in government
The second premise is:
Growth in government Economic disaster
The unstated conclusion which can be drawn from these premises is:
Widespread belief Economic disaster.
There are several red herrings here (e.g., contrast the correct explanation for job loss with “personal
shortcoming” and referring to military invasion), but the argument is nothing more than a two-step
conditional inference and the correct answer is merely the conclusion of the argument.
Answer choice (A): This is the correct answer choice. The testmakers’ final attempt to obfuscate
this argument occurs in the wording of this answer choice. The testmakers love to combine
reasonable statements (such as those in the stimulus) in a way that yields an apparently unreasonable
conclusion (such as this one). Without understanding the pattern of reasoning in the stimulus, it is
unlikely that a student would ever believe that increased knowledge of the causes of job loss could
lead to economic disaster. Thus, this answer is unlikely to be selected as a uninformed guess for an
inference question. But the stimulus makes it clear the indirect result of understanding job loss as the
result of impersonal social forces could lead to extensive government control of the economy and
economic disaster.
Answer choice (B): The stimulus argues that society would demand government protection against
impersonal social forces rather than believing in individual ability. Whether either approach is
reliable remains unknown.
Answer choice (C): This is an exaggeration of the author’s position. Just because extensive
government control would lead to disaster does not suggest that government should never interfere
with economic forces.
Answer choice (D): This answer does not reflect the contingent nature of the stimulus. “If the belief
were to become widespread” does not indicate that the author believes this condition has already
been met or that its effects are already occurring. We cannot infer answer choice (D) from the
stimulus.
Answer choice (E): As mentioned above, military invasions are a red herring. Their only purpose
in the stimulus is to provide information for a possible wrong answer choice. Furthermore, the
argument indicates that government control protects against invasions and would cause economic
disasters, so equating the two is unsupported by the stimulus.
Must Be True. The correct answer choice is (A)
Despite the testmakers’ efforts to obfuscate this stimulus, it consists fundamentally of a very simple
argument. The first premise can be represented as follows:
Widespread belief
Growth in governmentThe second premise is:
Growth in government
Economic disasterThe unstated conclusion which can be drawn from these premises is:
Widespread belief
Economic disaster.There are several red herrings here (e.g., contrast the correct explanation for job loss with “personal
shortcoming” and referring to military invasion), but the argument is nothing more than a two-step
conditional inference and the correct answer is merely the conclusion of the argument.
Answer choice (A): This is the correct answer choice. The testmakers’ final attempt to obfuscate
this argument occurs in the wording of this answer choice. The testmakers love to combine
reasonable statements (such as those in the stimulus) in a way that yields an apparently unreasonable
conclusion (such as this one). Without understanding the pattern of reasoning in the stimulus, it is
unlikely that a student would ever believe that increased knowledge of the causes of job loss could
lead to economic disaster. Thus, this answer is unlikely to be selected as a uninformed guess for an
inference question. But the stimulus makes it clear the indirect result of understanding job loss as the
result of impersonal social forces could lead to extensive government control of the economy and
economic disaster.
Answer choice (B): The stimulus argues that society would demand government protection against
impersonal social forces rather than believing in individual ability. Whether either approach is
reliable remains unknown.
Answer choice (C): This is an exaggeration of the author’s position. Just because extensive
government control would lead to disaster does not suggest that government should never interfere
with economic forces.
Answer choice (D): This answer does not reflect the contingent nature of the stimulus. “If the belief
were to become widespread” does not indicate that the author believes this condition has already
been met or that its effects are already occurring. We cannot infer answer choice (D) from the
stimulus.
Answer choice (E): As mentioned above, military invasions are a red herring. Their only purpose
in the stimulus is to provide information for a possible wrong answer choice. Furthermore, the
argument indicates that government control protects against invasions and would cause economic
disasters, so equating the two is unsupported by the stimulus.
