Life in an urban center, with daily experiences of subways, crowded

Question

Life in an urban center, with daily experiences of subways, crowded sidewalks and dense living, provides countless opportunities for social contact and connection. Exurban life, by contrast, exists in the openness of freeways and one-acre lots, exhibiting little that would suggest social commonality. Yet studies show that people who live in exurbia consistently rate their feeling of connectedness to their community as strong whereas urban dwellers more frequently express feelings of isolation.

Which of the following, if true, contributes most to an explanation of the difference in the reported feelings of connectedness between urban and exurban dwellers?

A.  The cost of living in exurbia is significantly lower than that in urban areas.
 
 B.  Rates of attendance at houses of worship are much higher in exurban areas than in urban ones. 
 
 C.  Exurban school districts often spend more per capita on their students than do those in urban areas.
 
 D.  The rate of violent crime is much lower in exurban areas than in urban ones.

E.  Many people who live in exurbia moved there from urban areas.

Source: MGMAT test.

I marked choice E as correct answer thinking that "feeling of connectedness" gathered in survey for exurbia residents is a reflection of many people who have migrated from urban areas and hence, they have their old experience registered in the survey.

I have doubts about choice B, because attendance at houses of worship is just one signal among all factors. It is not strong enough to logically prove the difference in the feelings of urban and exurban dwellers.

dentobizz · Accepted Answer

Bumping for review and further discussion
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Bunuel · Answer

OFFICIAL EXPLANATION

The correct answer is B.

Despite the fact that urban dwellers live close together and exurban dwellers live farther apart, the exurban dwellers report feelings of connectedness while urban dwellers report feelings of isolation. The question then asks which choice best accounts for this discrepancy.

Choice B is the only choice that provides a potential reason for the relative connectedness of exurban dwellers. It offers the possibility that because rates of attendance at houses of worship is higher in exurban areas, perhaps exurban dwellers find through these organizations a sense of community lacking in urban areas, where people perhaps do not have ongoing social contacts despite their physical proximity

ichha148 · Answer

Good question.

The answer choice needs to explain difference in the perception of connectedness between urban and rural people.

a-The cost of living in exurbia is significantly lower than that in urban areas. - there is no discussion about cost of living

b-Rates of attendance at houses of worship are much higher in exurban areas than in urban ones. - if rates of attendance is higher that means people are getting chance to become social with people

c-Exurban school districts often spend more per capita on their students than do those in urban areas. - OOScope

d-The rate of violent crime is much lower in exurban areas than in urban ones. - nothing about crime, OOS

e-Many people who live in exurbia moved there from urban areas - even though many people move from urban to rural , this still does not prove that they moved because they were feeling less connected in urban areas and that is the reason they moved

The only two contenders to me were options B and E , after some analysis I can conclude B as clear winner

BKimball · Answer

Hey all,

With questions that ask you to explain a discrepancy or some kind of disconnect, the real key is to rephrase the question in very clear and specific terms.  Here, for example, the question is:

"Which of the following, if true, contributes most to an explanation of the difference in the reported feelings of connectedness between urban and exurban dwellers?"

The real question that you should be asking yourself when you look through the answer choices, however, is:

"Which of the following, if true, contributes most to why exurbanites feel more connected to each other than urbanites?"

Once you've rephrased this (and all other "explain the discrepancy") question to be more specific, it's easier to get to the right answer. B is really the only one that works, as E really doesn't explain WHY exurbanites feel more connected.

abhishekdadarwal2009 · Answer

a-The cost of living in exurbia is significantly lower than that in urban areas.
 the cost of living does not have any impact on the addressing the question.

b-Rates of attendance at houses of worship are much higher in exurban areas than in urban ones. 
 the rates of attendance at the house of worship higher in the exurban areas sugget that the people in that area are more experiencing the feeling of connected more than those in the urban area.

c-Exurban school districts often spend more per capita on their students than do those in urban areas.
 the expenditure on school does not garnetee anything.

d-The rate of violent crime is much lower in exurban areas than in urban ones.
 The crime is not discussed in the argument and does not contribute to address the question.

e-Many people who live in exurbia moved there from urban areas.
 the answer choice does not provide any relevance

Kurtosis · Answer

Question Type: Explain/Paradox

Situation: Exurban people are more connected to their community than are urban people.
Assumption: Exurban people have more free time to mingle with their community but urban people are very busy.

A. The cost of living in exurbia is significantly lower than that in urban areas. - Incorrect. Irrelevant.

B. Rates of attendance at houses of worship are much higher in exurban areas than in urban ones. - Correct.

C. Exurban school districts often spend more per capita on their students than do those in urban areas. - Incorrect. Irrelevant.

D. The rate of violent crime is much lower in exurban areas than in urban ones. - Incorrect. Irrelevant.

E. Many people who live in exurbia moved there from urban areas. - Incorrect. Many people migrated may have migrated from urban to exurban areas, but this does not provide any explanation on why urban people were less connected with their community.

Answer: B

KanishkM · Answer

It is B

How can we say that the people living an Exurban life are more connected to their roots than a city dweller.

B.  Rates of attendance at houses of worship are much higher in exurban areas than in urban ones. 
Here we are saying that they are connected more to their roots compared with a city dweller

PriyamRathor · Answer

Hi Experts,
 AjiteshArun ,
 generis

I am confused why choice D is not considered for the correct answer.

My reasoning: -

In the correct answer choice, we are assuming that perhaps exurban dwellers find through these organizations a sense of community lacking in urban areas.

On similar grounds we can assume that,

Since, rate of violent crime is much lower in exurban areas, we can conclude that exurban dwellers perhaps trust each other more and hence feel more connected with each other.

AjiteshArun · Answer

Hi  PriyamRathor ,

I get your point, that if the rate of violent crime is lower, people may be more willing to trust and meet each other. However, option D is still a bit of a stretch in comparison with option B.

The paradox, according to the argument, is that even though urban areas provide people "countless opportunities for social contact and connection", people in exurban areas "consistently rate their feeling of connectedness to their community as strong whereas urban dwellers more frequently express feelings of isolation". An easy way to explain this is to point out that people in exurbs actually take the opportunities for social interaction that they get, whereas people in urban areas, even if they have more such opportunities, don't take them.

Its_me_aka_ak · Answer

B cant make a good answer as the rate of attendance in urban areas might be lower as they might be somewhere else socializing if they wanna.
However E suggests that the urban people migrated to exurban and now they feel closer to their community.

What do you think?

Life in an urban center, with daily experiences of subways, crowded

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Life in an urban center, with daily experiences of subways, crowded

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