Columnist: Shortsighted motorists learn the hard way about the wisdom

Question

Columnist: Shortsighted motorists learn the hard way about the wisdom of preventive auto maintenance; such maintenance almost always pays off in the long run. Our usually shortsighted city council should be praised for using similar wisdom when they hired a long-term economic development adviser. In hiring this adviser, the council made an investment that is likely to have a big payoff in several years. Other cities in this region that have devoted resources to economic development planning have earned large returns on such an investment.

Which one of the following, if true, most weakens the columnist’s argument?

(A) Even some cars that receive regular preventive maintenance break down, requiring costly repairs.
(B) The columnist’s city has a much smaller population and economy than the other cities did when they began devoting resources to economic development planning.
(C) Most motorists who fail to perform preventive maintenance on their cars do so for nonfinancial reasons.
(D) Qualified economic development advisers generally demand higher salaries than many city councils are willing to spend.
(E) Cities that have earned large returns due to hiring economic development advisers did not earn any returns at all in the advisers’ first few years of employment.

Skywalker18 · Answer

Columnist: Shortsighted motorists learn the hard way about the wisdom of preventive auto maintenance; such maintenance almost always pays off in the long run. Our usually shortsighted city council should be praised for using similar wisdom when they hired a long-term economic development adviser. In hiring this adviser, the council made an investment that is likely to have a big payoff in several years. Other cities in this region that have devoted resources to economic development planning have earned large returns on such an investment.

Type-weakens
Core- Hiring this adviser is likely to have a big payoff in several years and thus the city council should be praised
Evidence:
(ANALOGY) investing in an economic adviser is somehow like doing preventative maintenance on a car
(CORRELATION) In other cities in this region, there is a correlation between spending $ on an adviser and earning huge ROI.

Pre-thinking- 1.weaken by showing that the analogy is a poor fit 
2. weaken by undermining the correlation->causation part of the argument.

(A) Even some cars that receive regular preventive maintenance break down, requiring costly repairs.- this does not weaken as author freely admitted that preventative maintenance  almost always  pays off
(B) The columnist’s city has a much smaller population and economy than the other cities did when they began devoting resources to economic development planning.- Correct
In order to believe that adviser is the cause of huge returns, our ideal science experiment would compare two identical cities, one with an adviser, one without, and see how they each do in terms of returns.
(C) Most motorists who fail to perform preventive maintenance on their cars do so for nonfinancial reasons.- out of scope; The conclusion cares about the potential effects of hiring an adviser. 
(D) Qualified economic development advisers generally demand higher salaries than many city councils are willing to spend.- Irrelevant
(E) Cities that have earned large returns due to hiring economic development advisers did not earn any returns at all in the advisers’ first few years of employment.- Incorrect; the conclusion's PAYOFF is "in several years", so it's perfectly consistent with that to say that we didn't see an ROI immediately.

Answer B

KarishmaB · Answer

Argument:

Preventive auto maintenance almost always pays off in the long run.
In hiring an adviser, the council made an investment that is likely to have a big payoff in several years. 
Other cities in this region that have devoted resources to economic development planning have earned large returns on such an investment.
Conclusion: City council should be praised for using preventive maintenance wisdom by hiring an economic adviser which is likely to give a big payoff in several years.

We need to weaken the columnist's argument. 
(A) Even some cars that receive regular preventive maintenance break down, requiring costly repairs.
Costly repairs does not mean that there wasn't significant benefit due to preventive maintenance. Even if some car owners do not see a significant benefit from regular maintenance, still most car owners could see significant benefit.

(B) The columnist’s city has a much smaller population and economy than the other cities did when they began devoting resources to economic development planning.
A premise of the columnist is that other cities that have such resources have earned large returns. This option tells us that this city is not comparable to the other cities that the columnist mentioned. Hence it weakens the columnist's argument.

(C) Most motorists who fail to perform preventive maintenance on their cars do so for nonfinancial reasons.

Reasons for not performing maintenance is irrelevant.

(D) Qualified economic development advisers generally demand higher salaries than many city councils are willing to spend.

The point is whether their salaries are worth, not whether they come within acceptable limits of city council spending.

(E) Cities that have earned large returns due to hiring economic development advisers did not earn any returns at all in the advisers’ first few years of employment.

The argument talks about payoff in several years. What happens in first few years is irrelevant.

Answer (B)

sssanskaar · Answer

Columnist: Shortsighted motorists learn the hard way about the wisdom of preventive auto maintenance; such maintenance almost always pays off in the long run. Our usually shortsighted city council should be praised for using similar wisdom when they hired a long-term economic development adviser. In hiring this adviser, the council made an investment that is likely to have a big payoff in several years. Other cities in this region that have devoted resources to economic development planning have earned large returns on such an investment.

Which one of the following, if true, most weakens the columnist’s argument?

(A) Even some cars that receive regular preventive maintenance break down, requiring costly repairs.
 such maintenance  almost always  pays off in the long run.  -  Option A states the same.    Eliminate  .

(B) The columnist’s city has a much smaller population and economy than the other cities did when they began devoting resources to economic development planning.
 This option states the sample is not comparable.   Weakens .   Correct answer.

(C) Most motorists who fail to perform preventive maintenance on their cars do so for nonfinancial reasons.
 We don't care about reasons for which motorists don't opt for preventive maintenance.    Eliminate  .

(D) Qualified economic development advisers generally demand higher salaries than many city councils are willing to spend.
 No impact on the argument.    Eliminate  .

(E) Cities that have earned large returns due to hiring economic development advisers did not earn any returns at all in the advisers’ first few years of employment.
 No impact on the argument.    Eliminate  .

Adit_ · Answer

Solved using POE. None of the other options were relevant or specific to the stem at hand.
Option B was the only one left.

Other Options:
Option E especially talks of first few years when they are doing long term investment.
Option C and D are irrelevant.
Option A says some cars need repairs but the stem never talks of cars not undergoing repairs at all, its just that in the long run maintenance would pay off.

vasu1104 · Answer

city council hired long term economic development adviser so they should be praised.

other cities in region that have devoted resources to planning have earned larger ROI.

conclusion= council made investment that is likely to have a big pay off in several years.

just because other cities have earned higher ROI they are saying this city will get the same outcome. but what if situation in all the cities are different?

A completely irrelevant
B if the population is smaller and economy is smaller then this city might not get as big return as other cities. so as we discussed in prethink situation can completely change their outcome, so this is clear winner.
C out of scope
D who cares? pay them and get their service and get higher ROI. reject.
E but still they can earn in next few years after that. so not necessarily true.

Columnist: Shortsighted motorists learn the hard way about the wisdom

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Columnist: Shortsighted motorists learn the hard way about the wisdom

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