Power Score Course Book P. 223 #1

[saranash1]

The correct answer choice is D, which makes logical sense except I thought the the answer choice had to be discussed somewhere in the stimulus because the question stem says, "the statements above if true" referring to the stimulus instead of "which of the following if true..." referring to the answer choices.

[Jason Schultz]

Hi saranash,

I think "discussed somewhere in the stimulus" is throwing you a bit. In a MBT question, all the support for the answer choice must be found in the stimulus. The specific topic doesn't have to be discussed. In this case, it was alluded to in the second sentence: "However, last year Germans bought a higher percentage of imported automobiles than any other year of the previous decade."

Answer choice D mentions that the German auto industry was less "competitive," which that sentence lends support for. Market share is a zero-sum game - all the firms in it have to add up to 100% of the total market. Since we know that the stimulus is specifically discussing the German auto buyers' market, the lost share of German automakers means that %-wise more of their countrymen were buying imports. Accordingly we can correctly infer that the imports were comparing more favorably to German cars that year, or in LSAC's words, they were more competitive.

Does that help?

[saranash1]

you said, "In a MBT question, all the support for the answer choice must be found in the stimulus. The specific topic doesn't have to be discussed."

Are there question types where the specific topic in the answer choice must also be discussed in the stimulus?

[Jason Schultz]

Are there question types where the specific topic in the answer choice must also be discussed in the stimulus?

Yes. In Main Point, Point at Issue, and Point of Agreement questions, the exact topic in your answer choice must have been discussed in the stimulus.

For Main Point questions, it's pretty straightforward as you can't leave your main point out of the stimulus entirely.

For PaI, PoA questions, both speakers have to discuss the topic for you to know whether or not they agree or disagree on it. One tempting wrong answer for both types is to bait the test taker into extrapolating the speaker's views on one topic into another. ('Joe is against raising taxes on individuals, so he must also be against higher taxes on corporations too.' for example)

[saranash1]

thanks for you help!