Logical reasoning PrepTest 104 · Section 4 · Question 4

Question prompt

Mayor: Citing the severity Remaining source text redacted.
Why the credited answer is right

Credited answer: D

The notes below walk through why it fits the stem and how to eliminate the rest.

Argument or Facts

Argument

Valid or Flawed

Flawed

Question Type

Strengthen with Necessary Premise Questions

Stimulus Summary

Problem - The city’s roads ice up over winter, making removal difficult
Solution - Pave the roads with rubberized asphalt
Problem with solution - Rubberized asphalt is more expensive, and the building/road maintenance budget can’t be increased
Conclusion - The solution isn’t financially feasible

Answer Anticipation

First, let’s talk about the question type. Here, there’s no specific language that suggests either a Necessary or Sufficient Premise question. When that’s the case, the correct answer has always been necessary, which is why we treat it as that question type. However, the answers tend to also be sufficient premises, so we can be on the lookout for that.
Here, the argument falls into a common pattern - it’s a Problem/Solution argument. Specifically here, the Mayor argues that there’s a problem with a presented solution.
What’s that problem? That the solution isn’t financially feasible. And the evidence presented for the financial infeasibility of switching to rubberized asphalt is that it’s more expensive than normal asphalt. This is a problem, the Mayor argues, because the budget for road building/maintenance can’t be increased.
However, the Mayor only discusses the cost of building the rubberized asphalt. That doesn’t account for the costs of maintaining it. And we know that rubberized asphalt is cheaper to maintain (“less of a strain on the road-maintenance budget.”). It’s possible that the money saved on maintenance would make up for the money spent on building it, thus making it financially feasible to switch. Since the argument says this isn’t the case, it’s assuming that the maintenance savings won’t outweigh the building costs. Let’s find an answer reflecting that.

Answer choices

  1. A
    Using rubberized asphalt to Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice A is not credited
    If these other advantages don’t impact the cost of using the rubberized asphalt or don’t present maintenance cost savings that outweigh the additional cost of building it, then they don’t matter.

  2. B
    The severity of winters Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice B is not credited
    Even if the severity of the winters does vary from year to year, the savings from maintenance may not overcome the additional cost of building, so the Mayor’s argument can still stand.

  3. C
    It would cost more Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice C is not credited
    First, there’s no indication that rubberized asphalt is made by adding particles of rubber to asphalt. Second, the relative cost of this process for asphalt versus other potential materials is out of scope, since the Commissioner’s plan is about rubberized asphalt.

  4. D
    Savings in the cost Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice D matches the stem
    This answer addresses the relative cost savings on maintenance for using rubberized asphalt. If those savings would pay for the increased expense of using rubberized asphalt, then the Commissioner’s plan is financially feasible since the budget wouldn’t need to be increased. It is therefore a necessary premise that the cost savings wouldn’t pay for the increased building costs, as this answer states.

  5. E
    The techniques the city Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice E is not credited
    While the Mayor’s argument does rely on not switching being cheaper than switching, that doesn’t require there to be a way to make the current deicing process cheaper since we already know that the rubberized asphalt would cost more to install.

What this tests

Question analytics

Based on historical answer selection rates for this question.

Answer choice distribution

  1. A 8%
  2. B 2%
  3. C 2%
  4. D Credited 87%
  5. E 2%

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Discussion

  • Why B? 1 reply

    Started by Tehran20

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