LR Drill Set 11, Question 3

What we’re looking for

Working the answers

• A

  A particularly clever officer does the most important work in catching the criminal. That gives the individual a central role much like the classic detective. It weakens the claim that the stories endorse bureaucracies rather than individuals, so it cannot be our exception.

• B

  Criminals escape because the agencies pursuing them are inept. A story portraying an organization as responsible for failure doesn't offer an uncomplicated endorsement of its effectiveness. This is evidence against the conclusion, which rules B out on this question.

• C
  Correct

  Critical evidence turns up during routine investigations, and the police use it to capture criminals. That does not undermine the routine system; it shows the routine leading to useful evidence and success.

  The evidence may happen to emerge during the work, but the answer doesn't say it arrives independently of the investigation or because someone defies the system. It therefore gives no reason to reject the proposed endorsement. This is the exception among choices that otherwise point to individual importance or organizational failure.

• D

  If crimes are solved when the normal routine is broken, success seems to depend on departing from the system rather than following it. That challenges the interpretation of these stories as endorsements of the routine bureaucratic approach. It is a weakener, so we eliminate it.

• E

  Officers are often portrayed as defying the department's rules. That puts their independent actions, rather than simple obedience to the organization, into the stories. It supplies evidence against the author's contrast between effective bureaucracy and individual initiative. The question wants the answer that does not supply such evidence.