Bunuel wrote:
The list of the highest paying cities in the world is headed by cities in Switzerland. This serves to reaffirm the fact that people in Western European cities on average earn three times more than those in Eastern Europe. The fact that, in Switzerland, deductions from salary are relatively low, further widens the gap between net wage level earned there and in other countries, especially in the rest of Western Europe. The largest wage differences are in Asia, where the highest value (Tokyo) is twelve times higher than the lowest (Delhi).
Which of the following can properly be inferred from the statements above?
(A) The Swiss pay less money in taxes than do people in the rest of Western Europe.
(B) Delhi is the poorest city in the Asian continent.
(C) The wage difference between the richest and poorest cities of Eastern Europe is less than twelve times.
(D) Switzerland is not situated in Western Europe.
(E) Tokyo has more rich people than does Delhi.
Official Explanation
Answer: C
Since this is an Inference question, let’s analyze each option one by one.
(A) We know that the Swiss have lower deductions from their salary but we don’t necessarily know whether these are on account of taxes are some other heads.
(B) All that the stimulus tells us is that the average wage in Delhi is considerably lower than in Tokyo. We don’t even know whether we have data for each city in the Asian continent so there is no way we can conclude that Delhi is the poorest city in the continent.
(C) The correct answer. The argument states that the difference between the highest and lowest wage rates is highest in Asia, so it has to be lower in all other places such as Eastern Europe.
(D) In fact, the argument suggests that Switzerland is most likely situated in Western Europe.
(E) Again, this depends on the population of the two countries because the wage level in consideration is an average. So it’s possible for Delhi to have more rich people than Tokyo but since Delhi also has many more relatively poorer people, this fact pulls the average wage down.
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