#6 - The most successful economies have been, and will

[Administrator]

Complete Question Explanation

Must Be True. The correct answer choice is (D)

This stimulus consists of information about what successful economies tend to possess. We know that the most successful economies are, and will be, those that train for research, development, and application of new technology. Furthermore, Japan is better off than Europe, but still has a shortage of well-trained employees. We can infer that both Japan and Europe would benefit economically from training employees for better use of new technologies.

Answer choice (A): Even if you assumed that "research scientists" refers to the research of technology, "engineers" to the application, and that the inability of Europeans to apply the new technology quickly enough indicated a greater shortage of engineers in Europe, you should not have inferred this choice, because there are many other areas of the world, so this choice is wrong.

Answer choice (B): Just because Japan is imperfect does not mean that it is not the best country with respect to economic success, so this choice is incorrect.

Answer choice (C): Since the stimulus mentions only about two regions in the world, we have no idea what is "common," and this choice is wrong. In fact, since Japan seems fairly similar to Europe, if anything there is information in the stimulus to conclude that this choice cannot be true.

Answer choice (D): This is the correct answer choice. Since Europe has a shortage of the labor required for new technologies, the stimulus indicates that training is in order.

Answer choice (E): The stimulus compares Europe to Japan, but gives no information indicating Europe's comparison to other nations, so this choice is wrong. Also, Europe is similar to Japan in a negative respect, not a positive one.

[niki_lauda]

June 1991, LR2, #6

"The most successful economies have been, and will
continue to be, those that train as many people as
possible in the human skills required to research,
to develop, and to apply new technology..."
[remainder of question removed due to copyright restrictions]

I chose C, but the correct answer is D. I may have fallen victim to Shell Game. My reasoning was from the latter half of the stimulus where it says "Japan has far
too many workers qualified to perform only menial
tasks."

Japan has "too many" unqualified workers incapable of working in R&D. These people are a NON factor in Japanese economic success, THEREFORE I thought this implied that only a select few ie. "a narrow base" actually aided their economy; hence C would be correct.

D seems incorrect to because even if they train more people in new technology the stimulus states in sentence 3 that "there are not enough scientists able to DEVELOP and apply the technology". If there are only a few scientists in Europe who can DEVELOP the technology then no matter how many people they train in the new technologies there will be no increase in R&D because there is nobody coming up with it to begin with.

[Nikki Siclunov]

Hello niki_lauda,

Thanks for your question. I think you've made a number of unwarranted assumptions in choosing answer choice (C) over (D):

Indeed, "Japan has far too many workers qualified to perform only menial tasks" (last sentence), which is a corollary to the previous observation that there is a "narrow base of highly skilled labor" there. However, we have no evidence that this shortage is uncommon. On the contrary: the author mentions that Europe is in pretty much the same position. Furthermore, we cannot conclude that Japan's successful economy depends on a narrow base of skilled labor: if anything, the shortage is a downside. A similar shortage in Europe places the latter as a whole "in a weaker position" (third sentence). For answer choice (C) to be correct, it would have to state that Japan’s economy is successful despite a narrow base of highly skilled labor.

This line of reasoning also shows why answer choice (D) is correct: if the shortage of skilled labor trained to use the new technologies places Europe in a weaker position relative to Japan's, then training more people in these technologies is likely to make Europe more successful. The distinction between research and development is immaterial to this argument... you are reading into it too much

Hope this helps!

[niki_lauda]

For answer choice (C) to be correct, it would have to state that Japan’s economy is successful despite a narrow base of highly skilled labor.

Thanks for the response. Far less reasoning goes into justify (D) as opposed to (C). I just didn't think it would be so simple.

Sentence #1 of the passage talks about "successful economies". The first thing sentence #2 mentions is Japan and says it's "a model for this sort of training effort". Based on this alone I presumed that Japan had a "successful economy" according the passage. Then we have a counter argument that states in Japan "there is a shortage of technically qualified people".

Well,if successful economies are built on "[technically qualified people] and human skills required to research, to develop, and to apply new technology" AND Japan has a "successful economy" despite a "shortage" then I concluded that their MUST be a select few individuals who are highly contributive in the technology field.

[Nikki Siclunov]

I'm not saying Japan's economy isn't successful: clearly, it is (and the author agrees). And even if you can prove that its success depends, at least in part, on a narrow base of highly skilled labor, we have no idea if this shortage is uncommon. Given that both Europe and Japan share a similar predicament, the opposite seems to be true: Japan's economy depends on a relatively common shortage of specialized labor. The word "uncommonly" in answer choice (C) makes it impossible to prove.

And indeed, answer choice (D) is relatively easy to justify given the information provided in the stimulus. Does it make sense? Let me know.

Thanks!

[rameday]

For question 27 on page 1-83. I was a bit confused as to how D was the right answer. My pre phrase was that Japan is a good but not perfect model for measuring success. That answer directed me toward C. I am just wondering why C is wrong and D is correct.


A

[KelseyWoods]

Hi A,

Again, be careful not to prephrase some of these MBT questions too specifically. When you get attached to a specific prephrase, you end up choosing the answer choice that most closely matches your prephrase, rather than the answer choice that can be proven by the facts in the stimulus.

In this case, your prephrase wasn't a wrong statement based on the information, but it led you to a wrong answer choice and allowed you to overlook the correct one because the test makers picked out something else that must be true besides what you had anticipated. The test makers are clever people and they often do this on purpose. They know what most test takers will anticipate so they give you a different correct answer. Sneaky!

Answer choice (C) may have matched your prephrase the best, but it really can't be proven based on the facts. My main problem with this answer choice is the term "uncommonly." We only know about Japan and Europe. We don't really know what qualifies as "common" much less "uncommon." And, in fact, based on what we know about Japan and Europe, they seem pretty similar in that they have a shortage of technically qualified people and too many workers who are qualified only to perform menial tasks.

Answer choice (D) is the only answer that can be proven based on those facts. Europe has a shortage of people trained to use new technologies (3rd sentence) and the most successful economies are the ones that train as many people as possible in new technologies (1st sentence). Therefore, it must be true that Europe needs to train more people in new technologies to be more economically successful.

Hope this helps!

Best,
Kelsey

[rameday]

Yes this helped!

Thanks

[MBT12345]

Answer choice (D) is the only answer that can be proven based on those facts. Europe has a shortage of people trained to use new technologies (3rd sentence) and the most successful economies are the ones that train as many people as possible in new technologies (1st sentence). Therefore, it must be true that Europe needs to train more people in new technologies to be more economically successful.

Hi,
(D) seems too strong to me with the crucial question being what is the definition of "to need."

The language in D sets up a conditional where more economic success *requires* Europe to train more people [MES-->TM] ("Europe needs to train..."). I don't see that justified in the stimulus. As Europe is not currently one of the "most successful" (SUPERLATIVE), there is obviously room to improve. And the stimulus implies strongly that this can be done by training more people. Ok, sure. But "must/need" be done? Europe doesn't need to hit superlative status to become marginally more successful in its economy. Isn't this the classic flaw where "a method of achieving a given result is unjustifiably taken to be required to achieve that result?"

Thanks, MBT

[Emily Haney-Caron]

Hi MBT12345,

Great question. I agree with what you lay out, but I think where you got tripped up here is that we're looking for the best answer, not a perfect answer. D is not perfect, but given the stimulus, it is the only one that is even possible! I know that's not a very satisfactory answer, but you'll find that on the LSAT it is frequently important to remind yourself that you may not find a perfect answer choice.