PrepTest 128, Section 3, Question 1
In a transportation company, a certain syndrome often(49 more words not shown)
Which one of the following,(8 more words not shown)
- ADepartment F has(9 more words not shown)
- BSome experts believe(16 more words not shown)
- CMany workers who(15 more words not shown)
- DIt is relatively(12 more words not shown)
- EJob-related stress has(13 more words not shown)
Reading the argument
Why do more workers in Department F have this syndrome? Stressful work is one possibility. Perhaps they have unusually demanding assignments or exhausting hours. But the higher percentage doesn't tell us which explanation is right.
Maybe Department F has more workers who are especially susceptible to the syndrome. Or imagine a manager who yells at everyone every morning. That could create stress without showing that the work itself is more stressful. These are possibilities to investigate, not facts about the department.
The conclusion picks one explanation: the work in F subjects workers to more stress than the work elsewhere. I'd want evidence connecting the syndrome to that work and helping us distinguish it from other possible causes.
What we’re looking for
We're asked to strengthen that conclusion. My ideal answer would make the work explanation more convincing. It needn't settle every remaining question, but it should give us something more than the original difference in percentages.
Working the answers
- A
The size of the department doesn't explain its higher percentage of affected workers. A larger department could have more cases simply because it has more people, but our evidence already compares percentages. Knowing how many employees F has tells us nothing about whether its work causes greater stress.
- B
This opens up other explanations. If the syndrome can result from something besides stress, its prevalence in F becomes less reliable evidence of stressful work. That doesn't support the explanation we're trying to strengthen.
- CCorrect
These workers begin developing the syndrome soon after moving into Department F. Now we have a change over time: people move from other departments into F, and the syndrome appears. That gives us more reason to suspect something about being in F, rather than merely a group of susceptible people who happened to be there already.
This isn't quite the direct evidence about the work I wanted. A difficult manager or another feature of F could still matter. But strengthening doesn't require eliminating every alternative. The pattern of developing the syndrome after the transfer gives the work explanation additional support.
- D
A syndrome can be common throughout transportation and still be especially common in F for any of several reasons. Information about the whole industry doesn't explain the difference between departments within this company.
- E
Dissatisfaction is a different outcome from the syndrome. Workers throughout the company could frequently complain about stress without F's work being more stressful than other departments' work. This doesn't establish the comparison in the conclusion.
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