PrepTest 159, Section 3, Question 22
For a zoo to make a valuable contribution(60 more words not shown)
If the statements above are(11 more words not shown)
- AMost large zoos(3 more words not shown)
- BNo large, well-run(7 more words not shown)
- CSome zoos that(12 more words not shown)
- DSome zoos that(9 more words not shown)
- EMost small zoos(6 more words not shown)
Reading the argument
Keep the size of the zoo attached to the rule. Any zoo that makes a valuable contribution must be well run. A large zoo that is well run must have some full-time veterinarians. So a large zoo that makes a valuable contribution must have full-time veterinarians.
The small zoos get a different description: many well-run small zoos have only part-time veterinarians. So a small zoo can be well run with part-time veterinarians, while a large, well-run zoo needs some full-time veterinarians. The size distinction matters when we apply the staffing requirement.
What we’re looking for
The passage adds a scheduling fact: many valuable large zoos are open all year, while most small zoos close in winter. Now we're asked what must follow. I don't need to force all these facts into one prediction. I need to check whether each proposed conclusion follows from the requirements we actually have. Familiar ideas about what a good zoo probably does can't replace a stated connection.
Working the answers
- A
We know there are many valuable large zoos, which must therefore be well run. But “many” doesn't tell us whether that is most of all large zoos. Even 10 percent of a large total could be many. The answer requires a proportion we aren't given.
- B
Having some full-time veterinarians doesn't forbid having part-time veterinarians too. A large, well-run zoo could employ both. The rule rules out relying only on part-time veterinarians; it doesn't rule out employing any.
- C
This is tempting because we've just heard about well-run small zoos with only part-time veterinarians. But did we ever establish that any of those zoos make valuable contributions? No. Being well run is required for a valuable contribution; it hasn't been presented as a guarantee of one. It's easy to supply that missing guarantee from everyday expectations, but the passage doesn't.
Even learning that some small zoos contribute wouldn't automatically settle it: we'd still need to know those are among the zoos with only part-time veterinarians. The existing facts don't give us a zoo with both features. A plausible guess isn't enough for this question.
- DCorrect
Take one of the large zoos that makes a valuable contribution and is open all year. Its valuable contribution means it must be well run. Because it is large and well run, it must have full-time veterinarians. We therefore have a zoo that is both open all year and has full-time veterinarians, exactly as D says.
- E
Nothing establishes that most small zoos make valuable contributions. We aren't even told that any do. The fact that most are closed in winter doesn't settle their contributions, and the facts about being well run don't guarantee that result either.
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