PrepTest 104, Section 1, Question 1
Powell: Private waste-removal companies spend 60 percent of(64 more words not shown)
The issue in dispute between(5 more words not shown)
- Aaccuracy of the(18 more words not shown)
- Breason private waste-removal(19 more words not shown)
- Cability of private(10 more words not shown)
- Dlikelihood of the(23 more words not shown)
- Erelationship between the(16 more words not shown)
Reading the argument
Spending less while providing equally good service sounds efficient. Perhaps private companies face pressure to keep costs down because customers can choose a competitor. I can see why Powell finds the comparison persuasive.
But are the companies doing equally difficult jobs?
Imagine a private company that collects from houses clustered along a convenient route and declines a customer who lives far away. A public service that has to reach that remote house could spend more per customer without being worse at its job. The difference could come from whom it serves.
That is Freeman's objection. Private companies can reject customers they judge costly to serve; public companies cannot choose in the same way. The 60-percent figure could be accurate while Powell's explanation of it remains unproven.
What we’re looking for
For the disagreement question, my initial prediction is whether this comparison establishes greater efficiency. In the answers, look for the dispute about why private companies spend less. Powell attributes the difference to efficiency. Freeman points to the selection of less costly customers.
Working the answers
- A
Freeman doesn't challenge the 60-percent figure. The response can accept that private companies spend less and question what accounts for the difference. Disputing an explanation of a number isn't the same as disputing the number's accuracy.
- BCorrect
They dispute the reason for lower spending with comparable service. Powell presents it as evidence that private companies work more efficiently. Freeman explains how choosing less costly customers could produce that pattern.
Freeman doesn't have to establish that private companies are actually less efficient. It is enough to show why the comparison doesn't establish the greater efficiency Powell claims. The dispute concerns that explanation of the observed difference.
- C
Freeman says private companies can select customers in a way public companies cannot. Powell never denies that ability or discusses it at all. We cannot turn a new consideration raised in the response into a point on which the first speaker has explicitly taken the opposite side.
- D
Neither speaker predicts whether authorities will convert public companies into private ones. A comparison of the two kinds of company doesn't establish a dispute about whether a conversion is likely.
- E
Freeman connects different customer needs with different costs. Powell doesn't say that all customers cost the same or deny that relationship. The argument may overlook the significance of varying needs, but that isn't a stated disagreement about whether needs affect cost. B captures the actual competing accounts of the spending difference.
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