PrepTest 152, Section 2, Question 24
Political scientist: When a bill comes before a(64 more words not shown)
If the political scientist's statements(10 more words not shown)
- ACompromises regarding issues(22 more words not shown)
- BMost bills that(20 more words not shown)
- CMost bills concerning(22 more words not shown)
- DMost bills concern(15 more words not shown)
- EMost bills do(16 more words not shown)
Reading the argument
A bill usually has majority support to begin with. If it doesn't, changing its contents can usually bring enough representatives around. But there's a limit: when the bill concerns an issue fundamental to a large bloc, that kind of compromise is impossible.
Keep those routes separate. A bill might pass because it already has the votes, or it might gain votes through a compromise. Ruling out the second route doesn't rule out the first.
What we’re looking for
We're looking for a statement that must be false. I don't have a particular answer in mind yet, so I'll test each claim against what the political scientist actually ruled out.
Working the answers
- A
This doesn't claim that the forbidden compromises get bills passed. It says they usually do not enable passage. That isn't in conflict with being told that the relevant compromises are impossible. We need a statement that contradicts the passage, not one that merely sounds less definite than it.
- B
This could be true. Bills without a fundamental issue might already have majority support, or they might gain it through compromise. Nothing says that most of those bills fail. We aren't asked to prove B; we're asked whether it is impossible given the facts, and it isn't.
- CCorrect
This says most fundamental-issue bills pass because of compromises over their contents. But the political scientist explicitly says such compromises are impossible for those bills. They may pass some other way, such as having enough support already, but C attributes their passage to the very route we've been told is unavailable.
- D
We don't know what proportion of all bills concerns fundamental issues. Be careful with the earlier 'usually': compromises are usually possible among bills that initially lack majority approval. That is a particular group of bills, not all bills. Most bills overall could concern fundamental issues and already have enough votes, while compromises work for most of the smaller group initially lacking support.
- E
This could also be true. The passage doesn't tell us whether fundamental-issue bills are the majority or the minority overall. D and E make competing claims about that overall distribution, but neither is ruled out by the information given. Only C directly contradicts the stated restriction.
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