Logical reasoning PrepTest 156 · Section 2 · Question 18

Question prompt

Dapolito: The city council Remaining source text redacted.
Why the credited answer is right

Credited answer: C

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

Argument or Facts

Argument

Valid or Flawed

Flawed

Strategy Overview

Argument or facts? Always argument, so identify premises and conclusions of argument Anticipate why the premises are not enough to show that the conclusion is true

Answer Anticipation

On Strengthen with a Sufficient Premise questions, we need to find the answer choice that would make the conclusion valid if added as another premise. To anticipate what that answer choice will say, we should look for a gap in the argument. Where's the gap in this argument? Often, the gap occurs when the author introduces a new idea in the conclusion. Dapolito's conclusion introduces the idea of the city council's objective. The premises discuss what will probably happen when the city council's new rent-control ordinance goes into effect. According to the premise, the ordinance will decrease the quality and availability of rental units. However, the premises don't tell us the city council intended to decrease the quality and availability of rental units. It's possible that the city council wasn't aware that a rent-control ordinance would have these effects (these effects sound a bit counter-intuitive, after all). The city council may have thought the rent-control ordinance would improve the quality and availability of rental units. On the other hand, if the city council knew about this study and believed its results, then we could prove that the city council didn't intend to improve the quality and availability of rental units. In that case, the city council couldn't have thought the ordinance would improve the quality and availability of rental units. So, they must have had some other objective in passing the ordinance, as Dapolito concludes. Let's look for an answer that says the city council knew about this study and believed its results.

Answer choices

  1. A
    The recent study of Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice A is not credited

    This doesn't match our anticipation that the correct answer will say the city council knew about this study and believed its results. So, we can quickly cross (A) off. Besides, even if this study was conducted by "impartial investigators," the city council may have been unaware of the study's findings. If the council was unaware of the findings, it could have genuinely believed that the ordinance would improve the quality and availability of local rental units.

  2. B
    Rent control is not Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice B is not credited

    This doesn't match our anticipation that the correct answer will say the city council knew about this study and believed its results. We can eliminate (B) without hesitation. Besides, even if rent control is not an "appropriate topic" for the city council, the city council still passed a rent-control ordinance. That may have been inappropriate, but the city council could have still sincerely believed the ordinance would improve the quality and availability of local rental units.

  3. C
    The members of the Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice C matches the stem

    This expresses the same idea as our anticipation: that the city council knew about this study and believed its results. If the city council members who voted for the study agreed with the study's conclusions about rent control, these members couldn't have believed that the rent-control ordinance would improve the quality and availability of local rental units. So, the city council members must have had some other motive in passing the ordinance, as Dapolito concludes. Therefore, adding this answer choice to Dapolito's argument makes Dapolito's conclusion valid, proving that this is the correct answer. And because this answer choice matches our anticipation, we can justifiably select (C) and advance straight to the following question.

  4. D
    Some members of the Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice D is not credited

    This doesn't match our anticipation that the correct answer will say the city council knew about this study and believed its results, so we can quickly eliminate (D). Besides, (D) doesn't prove that the city council didn't intend to improve the quality and availability of local rentals. Even if some council members stand to profit from rent control, these members could also believe that rent control would improve the quality and availability of local rental units. And even if these specific members didn't believe that, the rest of the council members could have that belief, allowing us to conclude that the objective of the city council as a whole was to improve the quality and availability of local rental units.

  5. E
    The city council sometimes Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice E is not credited

    This doesn't match our anticipation that the correct answer will say the city council knew about this study and believed its results. Let's cross (E) off. Besides, this is far too weak a statement to prove that the city council didn't intend to improve the quality and availability of local rentals. Sure, the council sometimes acts arbitrarily and irrationally, but that doesn't mean it acted arbitrarily or irrationally when it passed the rent-control ordinance. The council may have acted purposefully and reasonably in that moment, hoping to improve the quality and availability of local rental units.

Question analytics

Based on historical answer selection rates for this question.

Answer choice distribution

  1. A 11%
  2. B 6%
  3. C Credited 53%
  4. D 24%
  5. E 6%

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