PrepTest 105, Section 1, Question 16
In a town containing a tourist attraction, hotel(48 more words not shown)
Each of the following, if(15 more words not shown)
- ADuring the past(10 more words not shown)
- BThose possessing passes(13 more words not shown)
- CWhile the cost(13 more words not shown)
- DThe local board(17 more words not shown)
- EEach pass contains(16 more words not shown)
Reading the argument
Maybe people are coming to town for something else. Imagine a ski town that visitors also enjoy for its restaurants and scenery. They could spend money on rooms and meals without buying a pass to the ski attraction. The attraction's managers haven't ruled that out.
Their hypothesis is that visitors are sharing or reselling annual passes. That could explain why spending around town is growing faster than pass revenue, but the revenue pattern doesn't establish that explanation. Perhaps interest in this particular attraction has faded. Perhaps staff are letting people in without checking for passes. Those are possibilities to consider, not things we know happened.
Also, don't turn slower revenue growth into a decline. Pass revenue could have increased, just less quickly than restaurant and hotel revenue.
What we’re looking for
This is a weaken EXCEPT question. Four choices should give us reason to doubt the managers' explanation; we want the one that doesn't. I'd expect alternative reasons for the revenue gap or evidence making illicit pass-sharing less plausible.
Working the answers
- A
New attractions could draw visitors who stay in the hotels and eat at the restaurants without visiting this particular attraction. That is the alternative explanation we considered while reading. The town can gain tourist business without corresponding growth in this attraction's pass revenue, so A weakens the hypothesis.
- B
One annual pass can support many legitimate visits. Suppose a visitor used to come once a year but now comes four times on the same pass. The attraction doesn't sell that person four passes, but the visitor may pay for four hotel stays and many more meals.
That explains how hotel and restaurant revenue could grow faster even though nobody shared a pass. The key isn't merely counting visits; it is noticing which businesses get paid again on each visit. The pass is already paid for, while rooms and meals aren't. So B does undermine the managers' explanation.
- C
Revenue can grow because prices rise, even without more customers. If hotels and restaurants charge more while pass prices stay fixed, their revenue could increase more rapidly for that reason. We don't have to assume visitors are obtaining illicit access to account for the difference. C weakens.
- DCorrect
An unchanged average length of stay gives us no new reason to expect hotel and restaurant revenue to outpace pass revenue. If tourists were staying longer, more nights and meals per visitor might help explain the gap. But D says the average stayed the same.
It doesn't prove the hypothesis true, and it doesn't mean all tourist spending must be unchanged. Prices, visitor numbers, and other factors could change. It simply fails to supply the alternative explanation or obstacle to pass-sharing that the other choices provide.
- E
Photo checks make it harder for someone to use another person's pass. That directly casts doubt on the proposed sharing or resale as an explanation of the revenue pattern. “Usually” doesn't mean nobody ever gets through with someone else's pass, but perfect enforcement isn't required to weaken the hypothesis.
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