PrepTest 125, Section 4, Question 3
Researcher: Any country can determine which type of(43 more words not shown)
Which one of the following(8 more words not shown)
- AA type of(15 more words not shown)
- BA number of(13 more words not shown)
- CIf two countries(20 more words not shown)
- DMost countries in(12 more words not shown)
- EThe nationwide testing(23 more words not shown)
Reading the argument
What if the highest scores come from something outside the schools?
Perhaps students get unusually strong help at home. Perhaps nutrition or some other difference among students contributes to their performance. Those are possibilities to investigate, not facts about any country. Copying the school system wouldn't necessarily copy the conditions producing those scores.
There's another problem even if the school system does deserve the credit: will it work somewhere else?
A method that works in China might not work the same way in Norway. We don't need to claim anything specific about either country to see the question. Differences in culture or how students respond could affect what happens when the method moves.
What we’re looking for
For the necessary-assumption question, keep both concerns in mind. The researcher needs a connection between the schools and the results, and also a reason the successful approach can be transferred. The claim concerns any country finding what will work best for it, so success in the original country alone isn't enough.
Working the answers
- ACorrect
The researcher assumes that a school system's success can carry over from one country to another. Otherwise, choosing the system associated with the highest scores elsewhere wouldn't show which system will work best for the adopting country. If a successful system fails when transferred, the proposed method breaks down. A addresses that portability problem, even though it doesn't resolve every concern about what produced the original scores.
- B
Why must any children attend private schools? The proposed comparison concerns public school systems. A country could have no private schools and still participate in that comparison. Their existence isn't required for the researcher's method.
- C
Identifying the best-performing system doesn't require discovering which individual features account for its performance. The researcher proposes adopting the system, not necessarily isolating and copying one specific feature. Further testing that identifies those features might be useful, but that ability isn't required by the stated plan.
- D
The tests could be introduced for this research. The passage says nationwide tests could be given, not that most countries already give them. Existing testing programs aren't a prerequisite for carrying out a new comparison.
- E
Comparable grade levels sound sensible, but this particular testing design isn't required. Countries might organize grades differently, and a comparison could instead use students of comparable ages or another common measure. The argument needs meaningful results; it doesn't commit to targeting matching grade levels as closely as possible. A addresses the more fundamental assumption that success transfers between countries.
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