Logical reasoning PrepTest 119 · Section 3 · Question 9

Correct. Argument or Facts:
Argument

Valid or Flawed:
Flawed

Question Type:
Must Be True

Stimulus Summary:
Legislators discover public service is inadequate → Boost funding
This leads to the least efficient bureaucracies getting the most frequent funding boosts

Answer Anticipation:
The stimulus establishes a situation that most commonly leads to a boost in funding—legislators noticing that a public service is inadequate. This is tied into the least efficient bureaucracies getting the most frequent funding boosts. In order for that to hold together, it must be the case that these bureaucracies are the ones getting noticed by the legislators as providing inadequate public services. Let's find that as an answer!

Answer Explanation:
The stimulus establishes that legislators boost funding when they discover that a public service is inadequate, and this results in the least efficient bureaucracies getting the most frequent funding boosts. For that to hold, it must be the case that legislators are discovering these inadequate services most frequently in the least efficient bureaucracies, as this answer states!

Key Takeaway:
While this stimulus featured a bit of a watered down conditional ("most common response" isn't a guarantee), it did set up a triggering condition to be in consideration for these funding boosts. As such, ensuring that the situation it applies to meets that condition is necessary for the argument. And in a Must Be True question, necessary assumptions are things that must be true.

Incorrect. The stimulus notes that the most common response is to boost funding, which leaves open room for other responses, including a cut to funding.

Incorrect. First, the stimulus only discusses the "least efficiently run" government bureaucracies, but that's a relative term. They could still be quite efficient, just less so than others. Second, the stimulus notes that legislators respond with a boost to spending upon "discover[ing]" the inadequate service, which this answer doesn't establish. Without that discovery, there's no indication that funding would be boosted.

Incorrect. There's no discussion of the efficiency of bureaucracies improving with increased funding.

Incorrect. The argument talks about a boost to funding, but that doesn't guarantee that the inefficient bureaucracies are the "most" funded—they could be boosted to a level still well below the average.