#1 - Taxpayer: For the last ten years, Metro City’s bridge-maintenance budget of $1 million annually

[Administrator]

Complete Question Explanation

Main Point. The correct answer choice is (A).

Answer choice (A): This is the correct answer choice.

Answer choice (B):

Answer choice (C):

Answer choice (D):

Answer choice (E):

This explanation is still in progress. Please post any questions below!

[Cflores17]

Hello, has there been any explanation?

[SerenaHaugland]

It is unclear to me why C is incorrect instead of A. The taxpayer starts out by saying that the issue is fiscal irresponsibility, and is saying that this is a project that should have only cost $15 million, in a well-run bridge program. However, due to the actions of the government, it is spending a massively larger amount instead. Why isn't the answer that due to its actions regarding economization the government is spending far more than it needs to because the program is badly run. So, wouldn't the answer be that due to the program being run, the government ends up spending far more than it needs to on bridges, rather than that it should have started off by providing more money, which in itself would be fiscal irresponsibility?

Would appreciate clarification!

[Adam Tyson]

The author is arguing that the city has been spending too little up until this point. Their evidence is that they will now have to pay a lot more than they otherwise would have if they had been more responsible all along. The conclusion is best expressed by the first sentence of the stimulus.

Answer C is a clever trap answer. That's the evidence, not the conclusion, because the city isn't spending too much now, in the present. It's the fact that they will soon have to spend too much that is meant to prove they spent too little in the past, which was fiscally irresponsible. Answer C is, in fact, the direct opposite of the conclusion - they are spending too little, not too much. The whole argument can be simplified to "you darn fools, look what you did and what it's going to cost us! Allowing things to get this bad was so irresponsible!" Thus, answer A captures the main point, aka the conclusion of the argument.

B is incorrect because it's not something the author ever said, and it reverses the conditions. If it was well run, it would have spent that much, but that doesn't mean that spending that much guarantees that it would be well run.

Answer D is incorrect because the author never said that, and it's just speculation. We don't know why the city was spending so little on maintenance.

Answer E is incorrect because the author never said that, and it's just speculation because we have no idea what they cost to build originally.