PrepTest 145, Section 1, Question 10
The following passage is adapted from an article(441 more words not shown)
Suppose a corporation is convicted(27 more words not shown)
- Aa fine exactly(9 more words not shown)
- Ba fine slightly(9 more words not shown)
- Ca fine enough(23 more words not shown)
- Da fine determined(20 more words not shown)
- Ea fine high(8 more words not shown)
Reading the passage
We are answering for the author, not for the economists. A 1-in-10 detection rate pushes a purely financial calculation toward a tenfold fine. But that is the route the author criticizes when it yields penalties that could close businesses and cost employees their jobs.
What we’re looking for
So predict a meaningful penalty that also considers something beyond the numerical calculation and avoids that practical harm.
Working the answers
- A
Merely taking away the profit when the corporation is caught does not address the gains from the many offenses that escape detection. It also gives no role to the additional criterion the author recommends.
- B
A slightly larger fine still leaves the low-detection problem. This repeats the inadequacy of the $7 million fine against a $6 million gain when most offenses go undetected.
- CCorrect
This combines a substantial penalty, a role for community judgment and concern about the practical consequence of closing the company. It fits the author's request for a criterion beyond cost and benefit while keeping the punishment workable.
- D
Multiplying the gain by ten reflects the detection ratio, but it supplies only the financial calculation. The author's point is that following that calculation alone can produce an impractical result. D answers the economists' problem without addressing the author's objection.
- E
Putting the corporation out of business is the consequence the author raises as a reason to reconsider the method. It is not the desired punishment.
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