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- Wed Mar 30, 2016 6:25 pm
#22650
Question #1: Assumption. The correct answer choice is (B).
The pundit concludes that the city should not have sold the rights to assess and collect parking fees to a private company. Why? Because the company jacked up the fees and made a profit, which could have gone to the city instead. This line of reasoning makes sense only if we assume that the city would have been able to make a similar amount of money, presumably by raising – and then collecting – the parking fees themselves. This prephrase immediately reveals answer choice (B) to be correct.
Answer choice (A): Whether other companies would have been wiling to purchase the rights is irrelevant to the conclusion, because the pundit is not arguing that other companies could have profited from such a purchase. The issue is whether the city could have profited.
Answer choice (B): This is the correct answer choice, as it agrees with our prephrase. If this answer is troubling you, use the Assumption Negation Technique and ask yourself if the following statement would undermine the argument:
Answer choice (C): This answer choice may seem attractive if you mistook the Assumption question stem for a Justify or a Strengthen stem. This is because answer choice (C) directly strengthens the idea that the city should have handled the assessment and collection of parking fees. Nevertheless, answer choice (C) is not necessary for the conclusion to be true. For one thing, it contains a broad rule or a principle (“should always be handled”), whose language is way too strong to qualify as an implicit premise for the conclusion. When in doubt, apply the Assumption Negation Technique and ask yourself if the following statement would undermine the argument:
Answer choice (D): This answer choice weakens the argument by suggesting that the city would need to consider other factors, besides revenue, before raising the rates for parking fees. If true, we can no longer be sure that the city could have made as much money as the private company did. What if the city has a legal obligation to keep the parking fees affordable, whereas the private company does not? Clearly, this answer choice does not state an assumption upon which the argument depends.
Answer choice (E): This answer choice also weakens the argument by suggesting that cities are less efficient than private companies in collecting parking fees. If so, the city would have probably struggled to raise the same amount of money as the private company did, even if it had raised the parking fees. Like answer choice (D), this answer choice attacks the conclusion rather than provide an assumption upon which the conclusion depends.
The pundit concludes that the city should not have sold the rights to assess and collect parking fees to a private company. Why? Because the company jacked up the fees and made a profit, which could have gone to the city instead. This line of reasoning makes sense only if we assume that the city would have been able to make a similar amount of money, presumably by raising – and then collecting – the parking fees themselves. This prephrase immediately reveals answer choice (B) to be correct.
Answer choice (A): Whether other companies would have been wiling to purchase the rights is irrelevant to the conclusion, because the pundit is not arguing that other companies could have profited from such a purchase. The issue is whether the city could have profited.
Answer choice (B): This is the correct answer choice, as it agrees with our prephrase. If this answer is troubling you, use the Assumption Negation Technique and ask yourself if the following statement would undermine the argument:
The city could not have raised parking fees even if it hadn’t sold the rights.Unless the city could do what the private company did, it is highly unlikely that it would have made a similar profit. Since the logical opposite of answer choice (B) weakens the pundit’s argument, answer choice (B) is an assumption upon which the argument depends.
Answer choice (C): This answer choice may seem attractive if you mistook the Assumption question stem for a Justify or a Strengthen stem. This is because answer choice (C) directly strengthens the idea that the city should have handled the assessment and collection of parking fees. Nevertheless, answer choice (C) is not necessary for the conclusion to be true. For one thing, it contains a broad rule or a principle (“should always be handled”), whose language is way too strong to qualify as an implicit premise for the conclusion. When in doubt, apply the Assumption Negation Technique and ask yourself if the following statement would undermine the argument:
Municipal functions like assessing and collecting parking fees should not always be handled directly by the municipality in question.How would the pundit respond to this claim? Just because the handling of municipal functions should sometimes left to other (presumably private) entities does not mean that this would have been the best course of action in this particular case. The logical opposite of answer choice (C) certainly does not deal a fatal blow to the pundit’s argument, which is proof that answer choice (C) is not necessary for that argument to be logically valid.
Answer choice (D): This answer choice weakens the argument by suggesting that the city would need to consider other factors, besides revenue, before raising the rates for parking fees. If true, we can no longer be sure that the city could have made as much money as the private company did. What if the city has a legal obligation to keep the parking fees affordable, whereas the private company does not? Clearly, this answer choice does not state an assumption upon which the argument depends.
Answer choice (E): This answer choice also weakens the argument by suggesting that cities are less efficient than private companies in collecting parking fees. If so, the city would have probably struggled to raise the same amount of money as the private company did, even if it had raised the parking fees. Like answer choice (D), this answer choice attacks the conclusion rather than provide an assumption upon which the conclusion depends.
