Preptest #10 (LR) Sec. 1 #19
Posted: Wed Aug 11, 2010 11:22 am
This question was about city councillors arguing that bus fares should be raised since those who do not live in Greenville (and so do not pay taxes for the city) still benefit from the subsidized fares that come out of the pocket of the tax-payers.
I found this question really tricky mainly because of (C). (Although I think I'm not as clear on (E) as I would like to be either.)
I see why (D) is the right answer, but I found (C) to be quite misleading.
(C) states that:
"Increasing transit fares would disadvantage those residents of the city whose low incomes make them exempt from city taxes, and all city councillors agree that these residents should be able to take advantage of city-run services."
What is so tricky is that the first part (before the "and") makes it look like this answer choice wouldn't weaken the city-councillors argument since it is about costs to those who don't pay the city-taxes.
I'm thinking that (C) is wrong mainly because of the second half of the answer which states that the city-councillors think that even though these disadvantaged residents do not pay Greenville's city-taxes they should still be able to take advantage of city-run services.
But this answer still left me thinking: how does this weaken the city-councillors' argument? The second part states that "these residents should be able to take advantage of city-run services" but this could be true even if the city-councillors did raise the bus fares -- it would just mean that the cheaper bus fare would no longer count as one of the city-run services.)
Also I'm still a bit hazy on (E) as well. Does anyone have a good explanation of why this answer choice weakens the city-councillors' argument?
Being about 2 months into the study, I'm now beginning to become much more consistent in the LR section. I'm always missing between 1-3 per section within time. But I really would like to bring that down to 0-1.
What exactly is the best way to shave off those last few errors? My mistakes always come from #15-25 which at least means that I'm getting the more difficult questions wrong. But there are always 2-3 questions that just seem so tricky that I feel I can only get them right after a long process of philosophical reflection, a process that obviously cannot be undertaken in a real exam. I do try to give myself more time for the questions after #15, so perhaps the only answer is to answer the easy ones quickly so a certain level of reflection can occur for the real stumpers.
And I'm still puzzled about (C)!
I found this question really tricky mainly because of (C). (Although I think I'm not as clear on (E) as I would like to be either.)
I see why (D) is the right answer, but I found (C) to be quite misleading.
(C) states that:
"Increasing transit fares would disadvantage those residents of the city whose low incomes make them exempt from city taxes, and all city councillors agree that these residents should be able to take advantage of city-run services."
What is so tricky is that the first part (before the "and") makes it look like this answer choice wouldn't weaken the city-councillors argument since it is about costs to those who don't pay the city-taxes.
I'm thinking that (C) is wrong mainly because of the second half of the answer which states that the city-councillors think that even though these disadvantaged residents do not pay Greenville's city-taxes they should still be able to take advantage of city-run services.
But this answer still left me thinking: how does this weaken the city-councillors' argument? The second part states that "these residents should be able to take advantage of city-run services" but this could be true even if the city-councillors did raise the bus fares -- it would just mean that the cheaper bus fare would no longer count as one of the city-run services.)
Also I'm still a bit hazy on (E) as well. Does anyone have a good explanation of why this answer choice weakens the city-councillors' argument?
Being about 2 months into the study, I'm now beginning to become much more consistent in the LR section. I'm always missing between 1-3 per section within time. But I really would like to bring that down to 0-1.
What exactly is the best way to shave off those last few errors? My mistakes always come from #15-25 which at least means that I'm getting the more difficult questions wrong. But there are always 2-3 questions that just seem so tricky that I feel I can only get them right after a long process of philosophical reflection, a process that obviously cannot be undertaken in a real exam. I do try to give myself more time for the questions after #15, so perhaps the only answer is to answer the easy ones quickly so a certain level of reflection can occur for the real stumpers.
And I'm still puzzled about (C)!