Q24

[bizzybone1313]

These analogy-like questions always throw me for a loop. Can one of you Manhattan instructors kindly describe the reasoning for eliminating the wrong answers and choosing the right one?

[christine.defenbaugh]

Thanks for your question, bizzybone1313!

The analogy question is a particularly challenging brand of inference question, so it pays to be very specific about our task, and use the text to guide us as much as possible.

First, we must find the assumption that Lowe is making about the relationship between monument construction and Classic Mayan cities. Fortunately, it's readily available to us in lines 9-10: "once new monuments ceased to be built, a site had been abandoned."

Also fortunately for us, we are masters of dealing with assumptions from all our hard work on LR! This assumption links Lowe's evidence (lack of new monuments) to his conclusion (site must be abandoned). We need another assumption that performs this same sort of leap, with different content. It will have a structurally similar premise, as well as a structurally similar conclusion. Breaking out each on in a simple premise==>conclusion form should help us see this similarities.

(A) lack of new produce ==> bad weather
(B) titles unfamiliar ==> only foreign films
(C) menu different ==> new management
(D) new name on sign ==> corporation sold
(E) lack of new stamps ==> stamp collection sold

Lowe's premise (lack of new monuments) is only similar to (A) and (E), (lack of new produce/stamps). And his conclusion (site must be abandoned) is only similar to (D) and (E) (corporation/stamp collection must be sold/abandoned). Only (E) matches up with both pieces!

A lack of new monuments indicates the site is abandoned.
A lack of new stamps bought indicates the collection is sold.


So, to survive a tough analogy question, you must:
1) identify the passage item we're starting from (check the passage for specifics!)
2) determine the structural issue or relationship at play
3) look at the structure of each answer choice
4) find the match!

Please let me know if this completely answered your question!

[bizzybone1313]

Thank you for responding so promptly. I actually did get this answer correct. I narrowed it down to A and E, but I did have a difficult time with choosing the appropriate answer. I couldn't definitively mark off A.

[christine.defenbaugh]

Yes, (A) is a very tempting one! The lack of new produce matches up just as well as does the lack of new stamps. But the conclusion is closer to 'so I conclude there are problems in production (bad weather)' rather than 'so I conclude that production has been abandoned altogether'.

Do you see how much more extreme the original conclusion is? In (A) the farms presumably still function, have workers, etc. Someone is still trying to grow lettuce, but there are some operational upsets disrupting the output. In the stimulus (and in (E)), the item in question has been completely abandoned.

Does that make sense?