The Civil Service Act of 1883, also known as the Pendleton Act, which created a professional corps of administrators, was passed after a disappointed office-seeker assassinated President James A. Garfield. For a hundred years, this system has anchored American government service to competence rather than corruption. The best way to preserve this state in the new millennium is to maintain the Pendleton Act as it is.

Which of the following would be most useful to evaluate the argument’s conclusion?
a) The methods that the Swiss and British governments have used to prevent corruption in government service for the past one hundred years
b) The current level of job satisfaction among government office-seekers and office-holders
c) The levels of competence and corruption in American government service between 1950 and the present
d) The number of Presidents assassinated since the passage of the Pendleton Act
e) The percentage of office-holders fired or convicted on charges stemming from corruption during the first hundred years of the Pendleton Act

I'd go with C. We need to include the new millenium in our discussion to see whether it still holds now. Who cares what happened up until 1983!

C, the system has worked up until now, but we dont know if it will be effective in the new millennium. Since this system was created based on a disappointed office seeker (aka the level of job satisfaction), the same condition must be evaluated for the new millennium.

One more E.

Perception today is Pendelton law has worked.....E helps to evaluate that perception...exactly what question asks.

OA and OE.?

Answer option C, as last 100 years might not be a valid time period (the question stem refers to "new millenium").
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Hope is not a strategy!

And here is the explanation:

This argument concludes that the best way to have good governance in the future is to preserve the Pendleton Act. It bases that claim on the record of the first hundred years under that Act. The argument assumes that American government service is still uncorrupted and that no better way exists to preserve that state.

(A) The methods used by other governments in other countries are irrelevant to this argument, which only concerns America. Furthermore, one cannot assume that the Swiss and British governments are free of corruption.

(B) The opinions, wishes, and satisfaction levels of government applicants and employees are irrelevant to the level of corruption.

(C) CORRECT. This would confirm or deny the assumption that American government service is currently not corrupt. The argument only claims that this was so for the first hundred years after the passage of the Pendleton Act. There is no information about the level of corruption for the past twenty-some years.

(D) The number of Presidents assassinated is utterly irrelevant to an argument about corruption in government service.

(E) This percentage of corrupt office-holders in the first hundred years of the Pendleton Act would provide no information about the level of corruption in government service for the past twenty years, which is the gap in the evidence. Thus, investigating this percentage would not be that useful for the evaluation of a conclusion that involves the immediate present and the future.

Good but very subjective.