Q9 - Editorial: When legislators discover

[xkcd09]

I was going between (A) and (C) for this and ended up choosing (C). C seemed to be the most robust one for me, but apparently A is the right one. I eliminated A because I thought it was an assumption that would fill in the gap, not an inference. Can someone help me understand why C is wrong and A is right?

[Shiggins]

I just went over this one and also saw how C can be tempting.
I believe choice C is wrong because it says "Throughout the time a government bureaucracy is run" The editorial states in the first sentence, that when legislators "discover" the public service problems they commonly respond by boosting funds. Choice C is saying they are giving funds throughout the inefficiency. They may not have discovered so this makes it a weak but tempting choice. Choice A brings "discover into play and connects both statements. I hope this helps.

[bbirdwell]

Great thought, though I don't think the word "discover" really has much to do with it.

Here're the facts:
1. when public service not adequately provided, most common response = boost funding
2. least efficient departments most commonly receive funds.

I can understand why xcd09 thought that (A) was more like an assumption than an inference, but if we look closely we'll see that we can ALMOST infer that "inefficient = inadequate." The link is the phrase "most common."

If most inadequate get funding and most inefficient get funding, it's a reasonable, baby-step inference to connect the two.

Note that we don't need a choice we can 100% prove. By nature of the question ("most strongly supports"), we are simply looking for the most provable. This is (A).

(C) is wrong because we have no evidence that those departments get their funding boosted repeatedly. We just know that, of all departments, those are the ones most likely to get a funding boost at all.

Just for kicks. we'll quickly look at the others.
(B) is clearly out. We have no evidence that funding is NEVER reduced. We just know that most often, it is increased.

(D) is clearly out as well. There is no evidence to suggest a cause/effect relationship between boosting funds and becoming inefficient.

(E) is a classic wrong answer choice, recognizable by the extreme comparisons made: "most inefficient... most funding." This is a common wrong answer pattern on inference questions.

Does that help?

[Raiderblue17]

Im a BIG opponent of diagramming but this one is a perfect example of when it works perfectly.

Legislators discover inadequate service > Raise Money for group
Inefficient Government Beauracracies > get money

So we have to connect Legislators and beuracracies. That's answer A.

Legislators discover inadequate services > Govermnet beuracracies

[KakaJaja]

(E) is a classic wrong answer choice, recognizable by the extreme comparisons made: "most inefficient... most funding." This is a common wrong answer pattern on inference questions.

I wonder is there any difference between "most inefficient" and "least efficient"?

Thank you!

[hanhansummer]

I can see now what makes C wrong. "Most common" doesn't equal to "repeatedly".

However, I still have a problem with A. My reasoning is like this:

1. legislators discover inadequacy ---> most commonly boost funding
A ---> B

2. least efficient g.b. ---> most commonly receive funding
C ---> B (agree to view receiving same as boosting)

Answer A says least efficient g.b. are those legislator discover inadequacy (C ---> A)

Isn't it a logical flaw? Looking for help

[NatalieC941]

Hello,

I am still very confused on this question - the explanations above talk about using conditional logic and/or considering the "most common" as an inference.

For me - I thought the phrase "Because of this" meant cause/effect, so I chose D because I thought it was suggesting that the more money an inadequate public service received, the more inefficient it will be come. I saw this answer as connecting the two ideas.


I don't understand how A works, and how it can work with diagramming.

Any help would be much appreciated!

[ohthatpatrick]

In the event that you still care a week later, allow me.

You're liking (D) because it's a backwards version of the cause/effect being described. The chain of events they're describing would be this:

1. A public service isn't being adequately provided (it's being run inefficiently)
2. Legislators discover that.
3. Legislators respond by boosting funding.

Had (D) read more like, "If a public service is running inefficiently, then legislators will commonly boost funding for it", we'd be better matching what was described.

The correct answer, (A), is playing off of step 2 written above, which was NOT ever presented to us in the facts.

If I said,
"When Patrick discovers that someone is a Beatles fan, his most common response is to start singing Beatles songs around them. Because of this, people in nursing homes are the people that Patrick most commonly starts singing Beatles songs around."

The missing fact is that, "Patrick most often discovers that people in nursing homes are fans of the Beatles".

That's the missing ingredient that gets us from the 1st sentence to the 3rd sentence.

In order for get funding from the legislators, we need to first have them DISCOVER that you're doing a crappy job of providing a public service.

If the least efficient bureaucracies are the ones most commonly getting funding,
then the least efficient bureaucracies are the ones most commonly getting DISCOVERED to be crappily providing a public service.

Hope this helps.