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Quote:
Columnist on the arts: My elected government representatives were within their rights to vote to support the arts with tax dollars. While funded by the government, however, some artists have produced works of art that are morally or aesthetically offensive to many taxpayers. Nonetheless, my conclusion is that no taxpayers have been treated unjustly whose tax dollars are used to fund some particular work of art that they may find abominable.

Which one of the following principles, if valid, most supports the columnist’s argument?


(A) Taxpayers should be allowed to decide whether a portion of their tax dollars is to be used to fund the arts.

(B) The funding of a particular activity is warranted if it is funded by elected representatives who legitimately fund that activity in general.

(C) Elected representatives are within their rights to fund any activity that is supported by a majority of their constituents.

(D) Those who resent taxation to subsidize offensive art should vote against their incumbent government representatives.

(E) Since taxpayers are free to leave their country if they disapprove of their representatives decisions, they have no right to complain about arts funding.

argument
= officials in their rights to support arts with tax
= some arts were offensive to many taxpayers
= but, this doesnt mean that they wer treated unjust

strengthen
Ans (B) since funding was warrented by officials who voted such, then conclusion stands.
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Columnist on the arts: My elected government representatives were within their rights to vote to support the arts with tax dollars. While funded by the government, however, some artists have produced works of art that are morally or aesthetically offensive to many taxpayers. Nonetheless, my conclusion is that no taxpayers have been treated unjustly whose tax dollars are used to fund some particular work of art that they may find abominable.
Which one of the following principles, if valid, most supports the columnist’s argument?

Worked on elimination method for this question.

(A) Taxpayers should be allowed to decide whether a portion of their tax dollars is to be used to fund the arts.No where mentioned. only thing stated is " my conclusion is that no taxpayers have been treated unjustly "

(B) The funding of a particular activity is warranted if it is funded by elected representatives who legitimately fund that activity in general. given : "were within their rights to vote to support the arts with tax dollars. and no taxpayers have been treated unjustly whose tax dollars are used to fund some particular work of art that they may find abominable". This proves that votes activities are funded in general

(C) Elected representatives are within their rights to fund any activity that is supported by a majority of their constituents.Usage of word activity makes it extreme

(D) Those who resent taxation to subsidize offensive art should vote against their incumbent government representatives.Too extreme

(E) Since taxpayers are free to leave their country if they disapprove of their representatives decisions, they have no right to complain about arts funding.Too extreme

IMO B
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Columnist on the arts: My elected government representatives were within their rights to vote to support the arts with tax dollars. While funded by the government, however, some artists have produced works of art that are morally or aesthetically offensive to many taxpayers. Nonetheless, my conclusion is that no taxpayers have been treated unjustly whose tax dollars are used to fund some particular work of art that they may find abominable.

Stimulus: elected government were in their rights to vote to support the arts with tax dollars. while funded by government some of the artists art was objectionable to tax payers. however the columnist concluded that no tax payers have been treated unjustly whose tax dollars are used to fund the artists work of art and whose work the tax payers felt formidable.

Which one of the following principles, if valid, most supports the columnist’s argument?


(A) Taxpayers should be allowed to decide whether a portion of their tax dollars is to be used to fund the arts. does not address the conclusion

(B) The funding of a particular activity is warranted if it is funded by elected representatives who legitimately fund that activity in general. does not address the conclusion

(C) Elected representatives are within their rights to fund any activity that is supported by a majority of their constituents. as most tax payers support the activity though some find it formidable arts is not waste of the money IMO C

(D) Those who resent taxation to subsidize offensive art should vote against their incumbent government representatives. irrelevant

(E) Since taxpayers are free to leave their country if they disapprove of their representatives decisions, they have no right to complain about arts funding. irrelevant
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Columnist on the arts: My elected government representatives were within their rights to vote to support the arts with tax dollars. While funded by the government, however, some artists have produced works of art that are morally or aesthetically offensive to many taxpayers. Nonetheless, my conclusion is that no taxpayers have been treated unjustly whose tax dollars are used to fund some particular work of art that they may find abominable.

Which one of the following principles, if valid, most supports the columnist’s argument?

(A) Taxpayers should be allowed to decide whether a portion of their tax dollars is to be used to fund the arts. - WRONG. Not the core of the argument so this one has no impact.

(B) The funding of a particular activity is warranted if it is funded by elected representatives who legitimately fund that activity in general. - CORRECT. Legitimate usage of funds = just treatment.

(C) Elected representatives are within their rights to fund any activity that is supported by a majority of their constituents. - WRONG. No doubt that we can't contradict this one but it has no effect as such on the argument i.e. unjust treatment to anyone.

(D) Those who resent taxation to subsidize offensive art should vote against their incumbent government representatives. - WRONG. Irrelevant.

(E) Since taxpayers are free to leave their country if they disapprove of their representatives decisions, they have no right to complain about arts funding. - WRONG. Irrelevant set of people.


Answer B.
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To find the principle that supports the columnist’s
argument, we need to find a choice that says that it’s
OK to draw that kind of conclusion from that kind of
evidence. The conclusion is fairly easy to spot,
signaled as it is by “my conclusion is that.” According
to the columnist, taxpayers whose tax dollars are used
to fund works they don’t like aren’t being treated
unjustly. Why? All we’re told is that the government was
within its rights to support the arts with tax dollars. In
other words, the general funding was justified, so the
funding in even the extreme cases is justified. It’s hard
to form a precise pre-phrase here, but we know that the
correct choice will probably move from general to
specific to support the reasoning. (B), if adopted,
would do the job, since it justifies a particular activity
(like funding offensive art) as long as the general
activity (like funding the arts in general) is legitimately
supported by elected representatives (like the “elected
government representatives” in the first sentence).
(A) could only interfere with the argument. The columnist
takes for granted that the funding of the arts is
legitimate, but (A) would make the columnist revisit
that issue.
(C) We don’t know whether a majority would support
the funding of the offensive art, or even art in general,
so (C) doesn’t help.
(D) and (E) are decent sound bites, but they don’t
address the issue of whether funding these particular
activities is justified. Whether taxpayers have an
effective remedy for unjust actions, (D), and whether
they even have the right to complain, (E), don’t speak
to the issue of whether the taxpayers have been
treated fairl
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Bunuel

Competition Mode Question



Columnist on the arts: My elected government representatives were within their rights to vote to support the arts with tax dollars. While funded by the government, however, some artists have produced works of art that are morally or aesthetically offensive to many taxpayers. Nonetheless, my conclusion is that no taxpayers have been treated unjustly whose tax dollars are used to fund some particular work of art that they may find abominable.

Which one of the following principles, if valid, most supports the columnist’s argument?


(A) Taxpayers should be allowed to decide whether a portion of their tax dollars is to be used to fund the arts.

(B) The funding of a particular activity is warranted if it is funded by elected representatives who legitimately fund that activity in general.

(C) Elected representatives are within their rights to fund any activity that is supported by a majority of their constituents.

(D) Those who resent taxation to subsidize offensive art should vote against their incumbent government representatives.

(E) Since taxpayers are free to leave their country if they disapprove of their representatives decisions, they have no right to complain about arts funding.

Premises:

My elected government representatives were within their rights to vote to support the arts with tax dollars.
While funded by the government, however, some artists have produced works of art that are morally or aesthetically offensive to many taxpayers.

Conclusion: No taxpayers have been treated unjustly whose tax dollars are used to fund some particular work of art that they may find abominable.

What is the principle used to arrive at this conclusion?
It has to be something on the lines of - "It is the right of the elected representatives to decide where to allocate funds even if public doesn't support it."

(B) The funding of a particular activity is warranted if it is funded by elected representatives who legitimately fund that activity in general.

Makes sense. It says that funding for an activity is fine if it is funded by elected representatives.


(C) Elected representatives are within their rights to fund any activity that is supported by a majority of their constituents.

Here is the problem - supported by a majority of their constituents

This option does not tell us that it is the right of Elected representatives. It tells us that it is their right if it is supported by a majority of the constituents. We know that many
constituents do not support these art works. Do we know whether the majority supports these art works? We don't. Then this principle does not support the columnist's argument.

Answer (B)
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