PrepTest 104, Section 1, Question 21
In order to pressure the government of Country(70 more words not shown)
Which one of the following(12 more words not shown)
- AThe government of(17 more words not shown)
- BThe telecommunication equipment(24 more words not shown)
- CA majority of(19 more words not shown)
- DOf all exports(24 more words not shown)
- EWithout pressure from(15 more words not shown)
Reading the argument
What if the government keeps all the equipment?
The manufacturers' argument depends on getting communication tools into the population's hands. I'll accept their claim that widely available equipment makes continued repression impossible. But exporting phones and fax machines to a country doesn't establish who gets to use them. If only senior officials receive them, the shipment hasn't created the public access the argument relies on.
What we’re looking for
That matters because the companies want their products exempted from the export ban. Their reason is that these products can help achieve the ban's goal of reducing repression. To connect that reason to this proposed exemption, they need the exported equipment to reach beyond the people running the government. The question asks for an assumption the argument depends on, so I'll look for something that prevents our government-only scenario.
Working the answers
- A
No recent increase in imports is required. The manufacturers could make their argument even if the government had allowed exactly the same amount of equipment for years. A supplies a history of import policy; the argument needs a connection between the proposed exports and public access.
- BCorrect
Suppose this were false: every piece of equipment imported under the exemption would be available only to top government officials. Then the manufacturers' reason would fail. Their premise concerns equipment widely available to the population, and an officials-only shipment would not deliver that.
B is carefully limited. It doesn't prove that the equipment will be widely available just because someone outside the top officials can use it. It removes one scenario that would defeat the argument. That is enough for a necessary assumption: the argument needs B, even though B alone doesn't establish the entire case for the exemption.
- C
The manufacturers' reasoning does not depend on whether a majority of legislators currently oppose the exemption. The same argument could be made to a supportive legislature or a skeptical one. A proposal's popularity is separate from whether its stated reason supports it.
- D
Their equipment doesn't have to be the most effective export. It could help reduce repression even if some other product would help more. The manufacturers need a reason to include their products in an exemption, not a ranking that puts them ahead of every alternative.
- E
Country R need not be the only possible source of change. Perhaps another country could also exert pressure, or change could eventually arise within S. Those possibilities don't prevent these exports from helping. The manufacturers' argument does not require repression to continue indefinitely without R's intervention.
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