PrepTest 138, Section 1, Question 24
Passage A Law enforcement agencies can effectively nullify(485 more words not shown)
Passage A(288 more words not shown)
Passage B(205 more words not shown)
Which one of the following(10 more words not shown)
- AMost water customers(9 more words not shown)
- BMost of the(11 more words not shown)
- CIt is appropriate(20 more words not shown)
- DIn recent years,(19 more words not shown)
- EThe only reasonable(22 more words not shown)
Reading the passage
Why would cutting off a few customers' water show that officials are finally serious about collecting? Because that would be a departure from the city's usual approach. Customers have been allowed to remain overdue for months or even decades, and officials now want to make examples of a few of them.
What we’re looking for
That supports a modest inference that water cutoffs have been rare. It does not tell us that no cutoff has ever occurred, how most customers behave, or where most overdue accounts are located.
Working the answers
- A
We have a number, not a proportion. There are 231,000 overdue accounts, but we are not told the total number of customers. The same number could be a majority in one city and a small minority in another.
- B
The city plans to target wealthy neighborhoods. That does not mean most overdue accounts are there. A choice about whom to pursue is not a count of everyone who owes money.
- C
The author does not approve of the cutoff plan, much less recommend it for someone who is only a few days late. The reported examples involve months or decades of nonpayment.
- DCorrect
The attempt to demonstrate seriousness by making a few examples suggests that cutoffs have not been a regular collection practice in recent years. “Rarely, if ever” captures that inference without demanding proof that it has never happened.
- E
The author recommends changing the law to permit liens. That need not mean classifying water bills as taxes, and nothing establishes this as the only reasonable solution. Both additions go beyond the proposal.
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