PrepTest 149, Section 1, Question 7
Rita: No matter how you look at them,(65 more words not shown)
Rita and Hiro disagree over(1 more words not shown)
- Athe survey results(8 more words not shown)
- Bpeople tend to(6 more words not shown)
- Ca different type(12 more words not shown)
- Dthe raw numbers(4 more words not shown)
- Ethe number of(8 more words not shown)
Reading the argument
The numbers can be wrong while the comparison is useful.
Suppose two groups really have rates of 40 and 20, but both report only half the truth: 20 and 10. Both reported numbers are too low, yet the first group still reports twice the rate of the second. That's the sort of distinction Hiro is making. Hiro accepts that people lie; the claim is that the relative rates could nevertheless be close to accurate.
What we’re looking for
Of course, if one group lies much more than the other, the comparison could fall apart too. We could challenge Hiro on that. But this question asks where the speakers disagree, not whether Hiro has proved the survey reliable. Rita says the results mislead us however we interpret them. Hiro thinks comparing the rates provides a useful interpretation.
Working the answers
- ACorrect
Rita agrees: no matter how we look at the results, they are misleading. Hiro disagrees: the raw numbers underestimate, but the relative rates are probably close to accurate. A captures the difference between rejecting every interpretation and defending this particular use of the results.
- B
They agree that people lie on this kind of survey. Hiro explicitly accepts that point rather than claiming respondents told the truth. The disagreement concerns what we can still learn despite those lies.
- C
Neither speaker compares surveys with another measurement method. Rita could think every available alternative is even worse while still criticizing this survey. Hiro could favor another method while defending the usefulness of these relative rates. We don't have opposing positions on C.
- D
Hiro accepts that the raw numbers underestimate the thing being measured. Hiro doesn't answer Rita by saying the underestimates are actually small or that the raw numbers are correct. The response is that relative rates can still be useful, so there is no stated disagreement over D.
- E
Neither speaker complains that too few people were surveyed. That would be a different criticism, such as saying we needed 100 respondents but asked only 10. Here the concern is how truthful the responses are and how to interpret them, not whether the sample has enough people.
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