GetThisDone wrote:
Letter to the editor: Proposition Q, a controversial measure on this year’s ballot, would prohibit the ownership of handguns within the city’s limits. Under the plan, gun owners would have a 90-day grace period to turn in their weapons to authorities. Proponents of the proposition argue that
fewer handguns on the streets would lead to less violent crime, making the city safer for all of its citizens. Unfortunately, the ban would actually have the opposite effect. Since only law abiding citizens would honor the ban,
armed criminals would not only keep their weapons but would also have the confidence to act with impunity on a population that could no longer defend itself.
In the letter to the editor, the two portions in boldface play which of the following roles?
(A) The first is an observation that the author uses to support a particular position; the second is that position.
(B) The first is a pattern of cause and effect that the author believes to be true; the second offers evidence to contradict this pattern.
(C) The first is a position that the author argues will not hold in this case; the second is the author’s position.
(D) The first is a prediction that the author believes to be untrue. The second is a statement of fact that undermines the author’s position.
(E) The first is a direct relationship that the author believes will not hold in this case; the second offers evidence in support of the author’s position.
This question is part of the GMAT Club Critical Reasoning: Boldface Revision Project. OFFICIAL EXPLANATION:
The author of the letter believes that the city’s proposed handgun ban will actually make the city a more dangerous place. In support of this prediction, the author offers the second boldfaced portion of the argument: an assertion that criminals will feel increased confidence to act since their victims will no longer be armed. This assertion contradicts the first boldfaced portion of the argument, a relationship between fewer guns and less violent crime cited by proponents of the ban.
(A) The first boldface portion argues that the handgun ban would lead to less violent crime, a position that directly contradicts the author’s stated position. The second boldface portion offers support for the author’s position, but is not the position itself.
(B) The first boldface portion is a pattern of cause and effect that the author believes not to be true in this case. By demonstrating that violent crime will increase, the second boldface portion does offer evidence to contradict the first boldface pattern.
(C) The first boldface portion does present a position that the author argues will not hold in this case. The second boldface portion, however, is not the author’s position; instead, it offers evidence in support of the author’s position.
(D) The first boldface portion is a prediction that the author believes to be untrue. The second boldface portion, however, does not undermine the author’s position that the handgun ban will increase violent crime. Instead, it supports the author’s position.
(E) CORRECT. The first boldface portion shows a direct relationship between the number of handguns and violent crime; proponents cite this relationship to support the handgun ban, but the author refutes this relationship. The second boldface portion provides evidence to support the author’s position that the handgun ban will actually make the citizens of the city less safe.
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