September 1995 Logical Reasoning Question Forum

[beautyistruth]

Can somebody please explain the question regarding manufacturing capacity to me?

(B) A reduction in interest rates might cause a precondition for industrial growth to be met.

I was able to diagram and see that rising interest rates leads to new capital investment, which is a necessary condition for industrial growth (IG -> NCI)
The use of "might" threw me. My thinking was that the language "any reduction in interest rates..." left no doubt that reduction in interest rates would cause the "precondition" of new capital investment to be met. I assumed that the tentmakers were purposely trying to trap takers with the "might" and scrambled to (stupidly) choose the shell answer E (Manufacturing capacity newly created by capital investment needs to be fully utilized if it is to lead to industrial growth.)
In reviewing, I'm still confused about why "might" is acceptable. Input? Thanks!

[03152016]

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[beautyistruth]

Sorry...thanks.

[03152016]

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[ben4847]

I see. Max is reading it that a precondition means something which is both necessary to cause growth, and will necessarily cause growth.
I would have read it like OP that a precondition just means it is necessary to cause growth. Thus, there would definitely be a precondition if there is a raise in interest rates.

From Dictionary.com: Precondition; something that must come before or is necessary to a subsequent result.

So, I think it is a flawed question.

[03152016]

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[ben4847]

Ok, yeah. You are correct. It won't be required whenever there is excess capacity anyway.
I was reading precondition generically, as in, there is a list of things which are always required, and manufacturing capacity is one of them. They intend it to be read as whether it will be a precondition in this scenario.

[beautyistruth]

Yup. And Kaplan Mastery gave an awful explanation of the question that completely ignored the trickiness of the correct answer's wording.