Q4

[alexg89]

I missed this answer when drilling the passage and my explanations are included below. If I am missing anything or wrong about something I would appreciate good criticism. It took me a few minutes before I could find the reason that E was correct.

A: Unsupported. Lines 40-44 describe that the government is only held responsible for compensating the other party if they modify the terms of the contract. This answer choice does not clearly imply that the contract has been modified in any way.

B: Unsupported, it says that an administrative contract may include certain terms not found in private contracts (line 38). However you cannot infer that this means that the contractor gains guarantees that are not provided normally in private civil contracts since no information is given that proves that one way or another.

C: Being ratified is one of the two different ways mentioned that it can be designated as an administrative contract. As follows, it is not required.

D: Perhaps the critics/advocates mentioned around lines 19-27 would agree with this. This seems to run counter to what the author would think however.

E: Best answer choice of the group. When the administrative contract is designated by statue it has to follow certain applicable rules upon entering into an agreement with the government. Can be supported from lines 31-35. In the second method it is explicitly mentioned in lines 36-39.

[demetri.blaisdell]

Thanks for posting, alexg89. It's great to see you getting deep in to questions you struggle with at first. I tell my students all the time that the best way to really learn from a question is to revisit it and put the extra work in. If you take the time to revisit the 3-4 hardest questions on each section after taking a practice test, you will be learning from your mistakes. The most important thing is to not look at the right answer before you look at the question again. If you do, you will just talk yourself in to it rather than doing the hard work of solving it yourself.

Great work with this. Let me know if you have any questions about this tip. Happy prepping!

Demetri

[mattmkaras]

I can see that E is probably the BEST answer, but I still don't think it is very good.
The question says "which one of the following IS true..." but the text says that the agency "CAN itself designate" the contract with specific terms. How is this resolved? Does "is true" mean "can be true some of the time"?

[mimimimi]

I can see that E is probably the BEST answer, but I still don't think it is very good.
The question says "which one of the following IS true..." but the text says that the agency "CAN itself designate" the contract with specific terms. How is this resolved? Does "is true" mean "can be true some of the time"?

I think "can itself designate" is read under "alternatively." When the administrative is not designated (this of course "can" happen), we have administrative contracts "designated by specific statue," which I presume should also "contain terms that distinguish it from a private civil contract."

[jeff.wongkachi]

I can see that E is probably the BEST answer, but I still don't think it is very good.
The question says "which one of the following IS true..." but the text says that the agency "CAN itself designate" the contract with specific terms. How is this resolved? Does "is true" mean "can be true some of the time"?

I think "can itself designate" is read under "alternatively." When the administrative is not designated (this of course "can" happen), we have administrative contracts "designated by specific statue," which I presume should also "contain terms that distinguish it from a private civil contract."

reviving this one for a moment. A and B are easy to rule out.

A) You can rule out A because "unanticipated" is not supported
B) Not supported


C) I have trouble not choosing this one in light of the answer being E because you would rule this one out because it says "must" when there are 2 potential options, either you 1) contract designated admin by SPECIFIC statute or 2) Designate a contract as admin by including certain terms not found in...

You also rule it out because it just says the passage of A statute, not a specific statute.

D) not mentioned

E) I have trouble with accepting this answer. It is likely the best answer, but it falls into one of the same traps as C because the question stem asks "Which one of the following IS TRUE" but like the previous poster said, there two alternatives so this is only could be true. Because I can eliminate the other answers this "wins" but I feel it is a somewhat poorly worded question.

How can we assume that "designate administrative by specific statute" is equivalent to "designate as administrative by including certain terms not found in private civil contracts"? Isn't that a dangerous assumption?

Thank you in advance for the replies.

[CM28]

I actually don't think the "can be true" issue is actually at play here. If you look at the exact wording of the stem, it asks, "which one of the following is true of a contract that is designated by a French government AGENCY as an administrative contract".

The word "agency" is actually used only once in the entire passage and this is to give the specific instance wherein a contract can be designated as administrative by including certain terms.

I missed this too and I think it was because I lumped the term "government agency" in with the general idea of the French government and didn't make the necessary distinction between the two. Very tricky use of a word I probably wouldn't have singled out on my first read through, but I think it is a fair and definitely answerable question.

[a8l367]

didn't make the necessary distinction between the two.

could someone clarify whether there is such distinction?