Logical reasoning PrepTest 146 · Section 3 · Question 11

Incorrect. There wasn't a decrease in per capita emissions in the situation described in the stimulus, so this answer is out of scope and thus could be true.

Incorrect. It's not clear if 5x in 120 years is slow, so we can't tell if this answer even applies to the stimulus and thus it could be true.

Incorrect. There's no way of knowing what happened between 1880 and 2000 as the stimulus only discusses those endpoints, so for all we know the pattern described in this answer played out.

Incorrect. The stimulus mentions the economy and greenhouse gas emissions, not population, so this answer is out of scope and thus could be true.

Correct. Argument or Facts:
Facts

Question Type:
Cannot Be True

Stimulus Summary:
1880-2000 British economy Ð Grew 5x
1880-2000 British emissions Ð No per capita change

Answer Anticipation:
The stimulus here can seem steeped in economics, but you don't need an econ degree to get a handle on it. It looks at a specific example of two different metrics—the economy, and per capita emissions—and it notes that one changed during a time period and one didn't. That shows that these two things aren't always linked (they might sometimes be—after all, we only have a single example to go off of), so the correct answer to this Cannot Be True question should state that economic growth and a growth in per capita emissions are always linked.

Answer Explanation:
In Britain between 1880 and 2000, the economy grew but emissions didn't. This answer directly contradicts that by saying economic growth always results in an increase in per capita emissions, so this is the correct answer.

Key Takeaway:
When a stimulus is fairly technical, don't get wrapped up in the technical aspects, as they're almost certainly not related to the logic and the correct answer. Here, the stimulus noted that one thing changed while another didn't, and the answer stated that a change in one of those things always happens with a change in the other. There's no need to understand what per capita means in order to track that logic!