PrepTest 119, Section 3, Question 9
Editorial: When legislators discover that some public service(38 more words not shown)
The statements in the editorial,(10 more words not shown)
- AThe least efficiently(20 more words not shown)
- BWhen legislators discover(26 more words not shown)
- CThroughout the time(19 more words not shown)
- DIf legislators boost(19 more words not shown)
- EThe most inefficiently(11 more words not shown)
Reading the argument
When a public service isn't working well, adding money is an understandable response. Think of a motor-vehicle office with long delays or roads that aren't being maintained. More funding might help, although money alone needn't solve poor management.
But notice the change in the editorial's wording. The first sentence concerns services legislators discover are inadequately provided. The second concerns the least efficiently run bureaucracies. Those descriptions aren't automatically interchangeable. A service could struggle for reasons other than inefficient management.
The phrase “because of this” tells us that the editorial is connecting them: legislators commonly respond to discovered service failures with more money, and this explains why the least efficient agencies commonly get increases. There could be other routes to funding too, so we shouldn't turn this account into a claim that poor service is the only route.
What we’re looking for
We're asked what the statements most strongly support. I'd look for the implied connection between the two groups: the least efficient bureaucracies are the ones legislators most commonly find providing inadequate service. That makes sense of the explanation the editorial gives.
Working the answers
- ACorrect
This supplies the connection between the two sentences. Legislators most commonly discover inadequate service in the least efficiently run bureaucracies, and their usual response is an increase in funding. That explains why those bureaucracies most commonly receive increases.
A is the best-supported reading of the editorial's explanation. We aren't claiming that all inefficient agencies always provide bad service or that every inadequately provided service proves inefficiency.
- B
A most common response isn't the only possible response. Legislators could usually increase funding but sometimes reduce it, reorganize the agency, or respond another way. Never reducing funding is stronger than anything the editorial says.
- C
This adds a repeated pattern throughout the whole period of inefficiency. The editorial doesn't tell us how many times a particular agency gets an increase or whether legislators keep increasing its funding until it improves. A comparison of which agencies commonly receive increases doesn't establish this continuous history.
- D
The editorial describes inefficiency as part of the explanation for who receives more money. It doesn't say the money makes agencies less efficient. We aren't given the effects of the increases; they might improve performance, leave it unchanged, or have some other result. D adds a causal conclusion about what happens afterward.
- E
Receiving increases most commonly doesn't mean receiving the most money overall. An agency with a small budget could receive several increases and still have far less funding than a large agency. The editorial also discusses a group of inefficient bureaucracies, not the budget ranking of one uniquely worst agency.
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