Concerns of over-population in country XYZ led to government funded bi

I chose B over A only because A describes population in general, while B explicitly states parents.

If every parent wants a male child, thus, they will not follow any government initiative until they produce a male child which in lead to an increase the country population.

Therefore, below is the right answer:
B. Since every parent wishes to produce a male child, they will avoid birth control until they conceive a male.


D is tempting to answer, but it is not stated that parents will try to produce a male child!

AndrewN, would love to hear your take on this.

Hello, kntombat. I remember this question from last week, when I had thought to respond to your initial query. This is a case in which I wish Veritas Prep could better mimic the phrasing of official questions, something that I believe may be prohibited by copyright law. An official question would likely drop in a crucial if true into the question stem, as in, Which of the following, if true, best explains...

Choice (A) looks decent. If a population favors male births and believes that birth control will increase the probability of conceiving females, then members of that population might have a compelling reason to avoid birth control, and the government-funded birth control initiatives might indeed fail. But is this the best answer? Probability is not absolute.

Choice (B) does indeed deal in extremes, but if it is true that every parent wants a male child and will avoid birth control until a male is conceived, then we are no longer dealing in probabilities, but in a definitive outcome. In this case, X will lead to Y, which will in turn lead to Z, the failed initiatives (unless a lot of males happen to be born to first-time parents). This is a safer answer than (A).

Choice (C) introduces a concern about the population of XYZ that we have no information about in the passage. It should be an easy one to see off.

Choice (D) does not touch on either birth control or curbing population growth, but attacks government-funded initiatives instead. This is another could-be-true consideration, like (A). I cannot say that it could not be the reason behind the failed initiatives, but again, does it present the strongest case?

Choice (E) follows the popular opinion on overpopulation, which has nothing to do with the initiatives.

I do not like to criticize questions that others have put a lot of thought and effort into, and I think Veritas Prep material is generally of high quality. In this case, though, I feel as though the missing if true opens the door to confusion. The hardest answer to argue against if that phrase were dropped in is (B), and that is what compelled me to choose it the first time.

I hope that helps. Thank you for thinking to ask me.

- Andrew

AndrewN, thank you for your prompt response and always coming through.
I hope you and your family are safe and sound.

Hey AndrewN, I have another thought on A. Don't you think it's weird for a birth control measure to increases the probability of conceiving at all? A birth control measure shouldn't be increasing the possibility of conceiving. Not sure if we can reject A on this entirely, but it sure makes it worse than B IMO.

Yes, Brian123, I agree, but that is a real-world consideration rather than one that we can derive from the passage. Furthermore, the answer choice does not say that taking the government-issued birth control will increase the probability of conceiving females, just that people in country XYZ believe as much. Beliefs can most certainly run contrary to facts. When I take on CR questions, I am careful to separate what I know from real life (in most cases, common knowledge excepted) from what the passage tells me directly. Before I learned to place stock almost exclusively in the latter, I thought CR was an arbitrary mess, a guessing game with glaring inconsistencies. But then I took it upon myself to study why I was going wayward, and I figured out that I was attempting to force my projection of what a logical answer might be onto the passage rather than working from the ground up with nothing more than what I was told. My accuracy jumped thereafter, so that is what I tell others to do.

Anyway, thank you for following up. I hope that my response may help a little in your continued preparation for the test.

- Andrew

Thanks AndrewN, I was indeed going by common sense rather than by what I know. But I didn't consider the fact that the option says that people "believe" something, not that it will actually happen. And like you said, beliefs can be contrary to facts. Thanks for clearing that up and for all the advice. I hope I'm able emulate that approach.

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