PrepTest 116, Section 2, Question 17
No small countries and no countries in the(67 more words not shown)
If the statements above are(10 more words not shown)
- ASome small countries(12 more words not shown)
- BSome countries in(12 more words not shown)
- CSome countries that(19 more words not shown)
- DSome small countries(15 more words not shown)
- ESome countries that(22 more words not shown)
Reading the argument
Keep track of the five countries we actually know about. None has a permanent Security Council seat while being small or located in the southern hemisphere. All five favor more international peacekeeping and a greater UN role in regional disputes. So we have real examples of countries outside the southern hemisphere that support that greater role.
Now a different fact appears: some countries that favor more peacekeeping oppose increased refugee spending. Are those countries the five permanent members? Maybe. But other countries could favor peacekeeping too. Sharing one position doesn't mean we're talking about the same countries in every sentence.
What we’re looking for
There's no argument to attack here. We're asked what must be true. We need a statement the facts guarantee, not a plausible guess about how countries vote. Keep asking which countries each fact actually identifies. We don't need outside knowledge about the UN to answer this.
Working the answers
- A
The countries opposing increased refugee spending might all be large. We aren't told that any of them are small. Every small country could favor increased refugee spending without violating any of the facts.
- B
We know the permanent members favor more peacekeeping, but that doesn't mean countries outside that group oppose it. Every country in the southern hemisphere could favor more peacekeeping too. Not having a permanent seat tells us nothing here about being against peacekeeping.
- C
This is the tempting overlap the facts don't guarantee. Imagine a big group containing every country that favors more peacekeeping. Our five permanent members are inside it. Some countries opposing increased refugee spending are inside it too. Those could be different parts of that big group.
For example, all five permanent members could favor increased refugee spending, while several countries without permanent seats favor peacekeeping but oppose that spending. All the stated facts would hold, and C would be false. We know the two positions overlap somewhere; we don't know that they overlap among the permanent members.
- D
The five countries whose support for a greater UN role we know about are not small. Small countries might support that role as well, but the passage never tells us that any do. Possible support isn't guaranteed support.
- ECorrect
Use the five permanent members as our examples. Each favors a greater UN role in moderating regional disputes, and none is located in the southern hemisphere. Therefore, some countries supporting that greater role are outside the southern hemisphere.
We don't need the refugee-spending fact for this answer. E connects two things we know about the same five countries. C tries to connect groups whose overlap hasn't been established.
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