PrepTest 116, Section 3, Question 6
Antonia: The stock market is the best place(66 more words not shown)
Antonia's and Maria's statements provide(10 more words not shown)
- Athe stock market(13 more words not shown)
- Bsavings bonds can(7 more words not shown)
- Cthe stock market(15 more words not shown)
- Dit is safer(12 more words not shown)
- Eit is preferable(18 more words not shown)
Reading the argument
A chance to make money quickly sounds appealing. But is that enough to make something the best investment? A gamble could offer a big payoff too. I'd want to know about the risk of losing money before accepting Antonia's recommendation.
Maria raises exactly that concern. She accepts the opportunity for a large, quick profit, then points to the possibility of a huge loss. She prefers the steady income from savings bonds. Antonia favors the stock market despite its volatility; Maria would choose the more reliable return.
What we’re looking for
So the disagreement is about what to prefer, not whether the chance of a quick profit exists. For this question, I'd look for the choice that captures their competing priorities: take the risk for the opportunity to earn a lot quickly, or choose a dependable income over time. They could agree about the risks and rewards while recommending different investments.
Working the answers
- A
This is common ground. Antonia acknowledges volatility and praises the opportunity for a large profit; Maria expressly accepts that profit opportunity and emphasizes the corresponding risk. Maria challenges the recommendation drawn from those facts, not the description of the stock market given here.
- B
Maria says savings bonds provide constant, reliable income. She doesn't say the return is large. Antonia doesn't discuss the size of bond returns either. We can't establish opposing views on the size of a return when neither speaker takes that position.
- C
Constant, reliable income is the feature Maria attributes to savings bonds. Neither speaker claims that the stock market provides it, and neither directly takes the opposite position on that particular possibility. We need a supported disagreement, not an extra comparison we supply ourselves.
- D
Safer and better aren't the same. Antonia could agree that savings bonds are safer and still prefer stocks because of the opportunity for a quick profit. Maria could prefer the bonds precisely because they are safer. Their recommendations differ, but that doesn't show disagreement about which investment has less risk.
- ECorrect
Maria prefers the investment offering reliable income: savings bonds. Antonia prefers the riskier opportunity to make a large profit quickly: the stock market. E translates their specific recommendations into the choice between those two priorities.
Notice what we don't have to decide. We don't need to settle which investment would actually be best for a real investor. We only need to identify the preference that separates these two speakers.
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