2016
GMAT Official Guide, Question 3, Page 502
A provincial government plans to raise the gasoline tax to give people an incentive to drive less, reducing traffic congestion in the long term. However, skeptics point out that most people in the province live in areas where cars are the only viable transportation to jobs and stores and therefore cannot greatly change their driving habits in response to higher gasoline prices.
In light of the skeptics' objection, which of the following, if true, would most logically support the prediction that the government's plan will achieve its goal of reducing traffic congestion?
(A) The revenue from the tax will be used to make public transportation a viable means of transportation to jobs and stores for far more people.
(B) The tax will encourage many residents to switch to more fuel-efficient cars, reducing air pollution and other problems.
(C) Because gasoline has been underpriced for decades, the province has many neighborhoods where cars are the only viable means of transportation
(D) Most residents who cannot greatly change their driving habits could compensate for high gasoline prices by reducing other expenses.
(E) Traffic congestion is an especially serious problem for people for whom cars are the only viable means of transportation.
ExplanationQuestion Type: Strengthen (government's plan)
Boil It Down (Simplified & Abbreviated Summary of the Prompt): Taxes up -> Drive less.
Missing Information: A way to enable car reliant people to get to jobs and stores
Goal:
Based on the prompt, find the option that reinforces the missing information.Analysis: The critics are pointing out that raising the gas tax has a big problem: most people have no other way to get to jobs and stores without driving. To strengthen the government's proposal, and show that it is likely to succeed in reducing traffic, we need to find a way to overcome that hurdle.
A) Yes! Here we go. This option shuts the critics down. A explains that the revenue from the higher tax will be used to establish public transit for those people to their jobs and stores.B) Out of Focus. If many residents switch to fuel-efficient cars, that's not helping the right problem. That's nice that a greater adoption rate of fuel-efficient cars would help air pollution, but the problem we need to address is traffic congestion. If there were just as many cars on the road, fuel efficient, or not, does nothing to address the congestion problem.
C) 180. This option attempts to make things tougher for the government's plan if 1) Gasoline prices have been underpriced, and 2) The province has many car reliant neighborhoods. Who is this option designed to punish? Those who lost track of which party we're trying to help. Not the critics, but rather the government. Gone.
D) 180. This option does the opposite of what we need. It shows that the higher tax won't reduce traffic, but instead cause people to look to save money elsewhere (and still drive as much).
E) Out of Focus. Yes, this option is on the government's side of the fence (acknowledging that traffic is a big problem), but we don't need support for the notion that traffic is bad. That fact is already established in the prompt since the government wants to reduce traffic. In short, this option is reinforcing the wrong aspect of the right issue. We need to help find a way that the government plan will work, not that the plan is needed. Gone.