#23 - This year a flood devastated a small river town

[Sherry001]

Hello ;
For this question I had two issues .
1) I picked E , and really can't see how D is the answer.
I don't see anything in the stimulus about how people were before the disaster in terms of their likelihood of providing aid to others.

D) once a disaster has struck them, people are more likely to aid others in need than the were before the disaster.


2) is this a must be true or must be true principle ? I had trouble finding the conclusion ( if it is principle )


Thanks so much for your help,
Sherry

[Steve Stein]

Hey Sherry,

That's a good question, and part of what makes it more challenging is the order in which the author reports the events. If we reorder them according to a logical timeline, the analysis becomes much more clear.

• A few years ago, a relatively small proportion of the residents of Hollyville sent aid to earthquake victims.
  
  Last year, Hollyville suffered a tornado and the town received emergency aid.
  
  This year, a majority of Hollyville residents sent aid to flood victims.

A few years ago, only a small proportion donated to disaster victims, and this year the majority of town residents participated. So, what happened to change things? Seems like after they went through some tough times themselves they were more sympathetic. That is what correct answer choice (D) provides: people are more likely to aid others after they themselves have been hit with disaster.

Answer choice (E) suggests that people are more sympathetic to those experiencing disasters like they themselves have experienced, but that principle is not applicable in this case, since the Hollyville residents were helping earthquake victims and flood victims, respectively, though they themselves had suffered a tornado.

I hope that's helpful! Please let me know whether this is clear—thanks!

~Steve

[sxzhao]

I'm also having trouble completely rule out E.

Upon reading the stimulus, I spotted two variables affecting the town's donation behavior:
(1) time: before vs. after they were hit by tornado
(2) nature of disaster: earthquake vs. flood

I'm having a hard time convincing myself that a tornado at a river town is NOT much similar to a flood vs. an earthquake.
Any tips on the method of reasoning here?

[Luke Haqq]

Hi sxzhao!

The problem with answer choice (E) is that it indicates people are more likely to aid people who experienced a similar hardship to them rather than a dissimilar one. As Steve notes above, that's not really applicable here. That's because Hollyville, last year, experienced a tornado. By contrast, Hollyville provided aid to other towns that experienced earthquakes and floods, which are different types of disasters than a tornado. Answer choice (E) would be more plausible if Hollyville had provided aid to other towns that had also experienced a tornado--this could be, say, a smaller or larger tornado, but that would make it similar to what Hollyville faced.