Logical reasoning PrepTest 144 · Section 2 · Question 7

Incorrect. This answer connects international trade and services together, but not in an inverse relationship. If agreements are mentioning services, that suggests they can be a part of international trade, not that they would limit it.

Incorrect. Specialized skills aren't directly related to international trade, so this doesn't explain the shift.

Correct. Argument or Facts:
Argument

Valid or Flawed:
Flawed

Question Type:
Paradox

Stimulus Summary:
E: Our economy is increasingly a service economy, so we engage in less international trade.

Answer Anticipation:
While not common, there are many examples of Paradox questions that feature arguments. They generally have pretty stark differences between what the premise discusses and what the conclusion discusses, as we can see here.

The premise is about a service economy, and the conclusion is about international trade. There's no established connection between those, so the correct answer should form one stating that the more service-based an economy is, the less international trade it engages in. Possibly something about service jobs not creating things that are easily exportable!

Answer Explanation:
This answer connects the increasingly service-based economy of the Economist's country to a primarily local-market based one. If the economy is shifting to services that are provided locally, then there would be fewer things to export.

Key Takeaway:
The occasional Paradox question will feature an argument—when it does, there's usually a very large leap from the premises to the conclusion. The correct answer, then, will connect those ideas, just as it would in an assumption-based question.

Incorrect. If anything, in suggesting that while the jobs are in the service sector the economy is still manufacturing many goods with fewer employees, this answer would suggest that international trade shouldn't be decreasing.

Incorrect. Since this is just about "[s]ome" services, it doesn't cover enough ground to explain a larger shift in the entire economy. There's also no indication this wasn't true of the country's goods when it was more heavily focused on manufacturing.