PrepTest 106, Section 1, Question 17
When a community opens a large shopping mall,(47 more words not shown)
Which one of the following,(10 more words not shown)
- AWhen large shopping(28 more words not shown)
- BMost of the(32 more words not shown)
- CMost of the(31 more words not shown)
- DMost of the(25 more words not shown)
- EMost of the(22 more words not shown)
Reading the argument
A busy mall doesn't necessarily mean the town is doing that much more business. At first, we might even wonder whether a mall causes a local boom or gets built because the economy is already doing well. But the specific puzzle here is about the size of the increase: lots of activity happens inside the mall, while the town's economy grows by much less.
Where did the rest of that apparent boost go?
Maybe some of the mall's business came from shops and restaurants elsewhere in town. Someone who used to eat at a local restaurant now eats at the mall. Someone who used to visit the old movie theater now goes to the mall's cinema. That's new business for the mall, but it replaces business the community already had.
What we’re looking for
For example, suppose people spend $100 at the mall, but $80 of that would otherwise have been spent at other local businesses. The mall gets $100 in activity; the town gets only $20 in additional activity. There's no contradiction once we separate spending at the new location from spending added to the community. We're looking for a fact that helps explain that difference.
Working the answers
- A
This describes a change over time: a new mall initially draws crowds, then draws fewer shoppers. But our puzzle compares the mall's activity with the town's increase in activity. Even during the same busy period, why doesn't all that mall business translate into an equally large boost for the town? A later decline in the mall's popularity doesn't explain that difference.
- B
This points the other way. These tourists wouldn't have visited the community without the mall, so their spending brings in money the town otherwise wouldn't have received. That gives us a reason to expect mall activity to add to the local economy, rather than explaining why so much of it fails to do so.
- C
These workers moved to the community because jobs were available. That doesn't tell us why a large amount of spending in the mall produces only a small increase in the town's economy. We aren't told that their jobs or the mall's sales replace existing local activity. Whether the workers are newcomers doesn't resolve the particular accounting puzzle.
- DCorrect
Most of the money would have been spent elsewhere in the same community. That's the key: the mall is shifting much of the town's existing business to a new location. Our $100 example shows how the mall can be busy while the town gains only a fraction of that amount in new activity. The local economy can still grow; it simply doesn't grow by the mall's entire volume of business.
- E
Temporary construction work and low wages might disappoint people who expected better jobs. But job quality is a different issue from the one we're explaining. The passage tells us a large amount of economic activity does occur in the mall. This choice doesn't explain why the increase in the community's total activity is much smaller than that amount.
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