PrepTest 138, Section 2, Question 26
Sarah: When commercial fishing boats with permits to(70 more words not shown)
The technique Amar uses in(6 more words not shown)
- Aquestion whether Sarah's(6 more words not shown)
- Bpoint out that(9 more words not shown)
- Callude to a(9 more words not shown)
- Dcontend that Sarah's(6 more words not shown)
- Emaintain that Sarah(6 more words not shown)
Reading the argument
That could reward people for having more 'accidents.'
Sarah sees a real waste problem. Suppose a boat is permitted to catch tuna but accidentally catches salmon. Under the rule described, it must throw the salmon back even though many rejected fish won't survive. Letting the crew keep an already-caught fish seems like a way to avoid wasting it.
But changing the rule could also change the crew's behavior. A fisher might deliberately catch an unpermitted fish and say, 'Oops, that was an accident.' Once accidental catches can legally be kept, the excuse becomes more useful.
What we’re looking for
That's Amar's response. He doesn't deny that throwing fish back can be wasteful. He points to an undesirable result of Sarah's proposed fix. For the method question, describe that objection: the recommendation could create an incentive for more supposedly accidental catches.
Working the answers
- A
Amar doesn't say the permit rule cannot be changed or the recommendation cannot be implemented. He objects to what could happen after it is implemented. A feasible policy can still have bad consequences.
- B
The quotation marks around 'accidents' signal doubt that all the future catches would really be accidental. They don't show Sarah using a word in two different senses within her argument. The suspected misuse would be by fishers trying to keep their catches.
- C
Amar gives a reason against adopting Sarah's recommendation, not a factor supporting it. The prediction of more questionable catches is meant to expose a downside to the proposed permission.
- DCorrect
The negative consequence is an increase in supposedly accidental catches. Allowing crews to keep those fish could encourage them to catch fish they aren't otherwise permitted to keep. That challenges the proposed solution by pointing out how it might change incentives.
- E
No past policy or historical example is offered. Amar predicts how people would respond to this proposed rule. A warning about future behavior is not automatically an appeal to lessons from earlier policies.
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