PrepTest 147, Section 4, Question 5
Marisa: Existing zoning regulations must be loosened; in(66 more words not shown)
Tyne's response to Marisa suggests(13 more words not shown)
Reading the argument
Lower property prices don't automatically mean zoning rules should be loosened. Maybe preventing development is the point. Someone might prefer an undisturbed forest to a more expensive parcel that can be built on.
That is my first reaction to Marisa, and Tyne seems to be raising a similar concern about preserving nature. But the question asks something more specific: which word has Tyne misinterpreted? That sends us back to compare what each speaker means, rather than simply deciding which priority we prefer.
What we’re looking for
Marisa's 'property values' concern money: what the undeveloped land is worth as property. Tyne shifts to the value of keeping natural areas undisturbed—their importance or benefit to us. Land can become less valuable on the market while remaining valuable as a forest. Those claims can both be true.
Working the answers
- A
Both speakers use 'regulations' to mean rules restricting development. They disagree about whether those rules should be loosened, but different opinions about a rule aren't different meanings of the word 'regulations.'
- B
Both are discussing building on or otherwise developing the land. Tyne's concern with preserving undisturbed areas responds to that same activity. The shift is in how the land is valued, not what development refers to.
- C
Marisa says the restrictions are so prohibitive that property values fall. Tyne acknowledges that developers could see the rules as a way to restrict development further. Nothing suggests Tyne takes 'prohibitive' to mean something different; Tyne favors a restriction that Marisa criticizes.
- DCorrect
Marisa is talking about financial property values. Tyne answers by emphasizing the value of preserving natural areas. Protecting that environmental value doesn't show that the rules preserve or increase the land's market price. Tyne's response shifts between two senses of the same word rather than answering Marisa on the meaning Marisa used.
- E
The dispute isn't about how large the reduction is. Tyne doesn't reinterpret 'significantly' or argue that the financial decrease is small. Tyne instead speaks about another kind of value altogether.
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