PrepTest 149, Section 3, Question 6
Forestry official: Many people think that if forest(50 more words not shown)
The statement that relatively frequent,(20 more words not shown)
- AIt is offered(26 more words not shown)
- BIt is used(26 more words not shown)
- CIt is used(27 more words not shown)
- DIt is an(19 more words not shown)
- EIt is a(18 more words not shown)
Reading the argument
My first instinct would be to put the fire out. But the official gives us a reason that leaving a small one alone might help prevent something much worse.
Small fires remove little trees and debris that would otherwise build up. If that material accumulates, it can create the conditions for a devastating fire. So quickly stopping every small fire could preserve the very material that makes a later fire more dangerous. Within this account, allowing smaller burns has a sensible purpose.
What we’re looking for
I'd still wonder whether a small fire could get out of control. But we're being asked what a statement does in the argument, not whether the policy handles every risk. The debris-clearing statement gives a reason for letting small fires burn. It supports the official's conclusion and challenges the people who regard any delay in extinguishing a fire as a failure to do the job.
Working the answers
- A
This gives the evidence to the wrong side. The people mentioned at the beginning favor extinguishing fires immediately. The benefit of allowing small fires to clear debris is the official's reason for questioning that view, not for supporting it.
- BCorrect
The statement is evidence against the criticism that failing to put out every fire immediately means doing the job badly. If some fires remove material that could fuel a later catastrophe, letting them burn can serve the department's purpose. That is how the targeted statement supports the official's recommendation while challenging the opening criticism.
- C
The targeted statement describes a benefit of allowing small fires: they clear debris. It doesn't directly describe what happens when the department follows the public's preferred policy of extinguishing fires quickly. We can combine it with the later warning about accumulated debris to think through that policy's consequences, but C misidentifies the particular statement's role. Its immediate job is to supply evidence favoring small burns.
- D
This is a general claim about what relatively frequent small fires do, not a particular fire offered as an example. More importantly, it doesn't illustrate or establish what most people believe. The official uses it to challenge the view mentioned at the start.
- E
The support runs the other way. Small fires clear debris, so the official concludes it's best to let them burn. The argument doesn't begin by assuming that letting them burn is best and then infer that they clear debris. E switches the reason with the recommendation it supports.
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