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805+ Level|   Inference|   Strengthen|      
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mukulgupta5
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The Italian government subsidizes health care for the elderly and this 07 Jun 2016, 17:34
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Be sure to select an answer first to save it in the Error Log before revealing the correct answer (OA)!

Difficulty:

95% (hard)

Question Stats:

31% (02:02) correct 69% (02:01) wrong based on 690 sessions

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The Italian government subsidizes health care for the elderly and this cost is redeemed by the extra tax that it levies on sales of electronic goods. Consequently, Italians increasingly resort to crossing the borders to shop in Slovenia, where the prices for electronic goods are lower, largely because Slovenia does not apply that tax on electronic goods.

Which one of the following is best supported on the basis of the information above?

(A) If the rising trend in shopping across the border continues at similar substantial levels and the health care subsidy is maintained by the Italian government, the tax that is levied on electronic goods in Italy will be assessed at a higher rate.
(B) If the Italian government seeks to control this situation by levying a tax on electronic goods imported from Slovenia, the situation can be brought to normalcy quite quickly.
(C) The health care subsidy that the Italian government provides to the elderly has been steadily increasing in recent years.
(D) The same brands of electronic goods available in Italy are available to Italians in Slovenia.
(E) No extra tax is levied on electronic goods that are bought in Slovenia and brought into Italy.
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A
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mikemcgarry
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The Italian government subsidizes health care for the elderly and this 08 Jun 2016, 14:52
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mukulgupta5
The Italian government subsidizes health care for the elderly and this cost is redeemed by the extra tax that it levies on sales of electronic goods. Consequently, Italians increasingly resort to crossing the borders to shop in Slovenia, where the prices for electronic goods are lower, largely because Slovenia does not apply that tax on electronic goods.

Which one of the following is best supported on the basis of the information above?

(A) If the rising trend in shopping across the border continues at similar substantial levels and the health care subsidy is maintained by the Italian government, the tax that is levied on electronic goods in Italy will be assessed at a higher rate.
(B) If the Italian government seeks to control this situation by levying a tax on electronic goods imported from Slovenia, the situation can be brought to normalcy quite quickly.
(C) The health care subsidy that the Italian government provides to the elderly has been steadily increasing in recent years.
(D) The same brands of electronic goods available in Italy are available to Italians in Slovenia.
(E) No extra tax is levied on electronic goods that are bought in Slovenia and brought into Italy.
Show more
Dear mukulgupta5,
I'm happy to respond. :-) My friend, I don't have a very high opinion of this question. It is not as tight as a real GMAT CR question.

Prompt:
The Italian government subsidizes health care for the elderly and this cost is redeemed by the extra tax that it levies on sales of electronic goods. Consequently, Italians increasingly resort to crossing the borders to shop in Slovenia, where the prices for electronic goods are lower, largely because Slovenia does not apply that tax on electronic goods.
Interesting. Do we know that the cost taken in by this extra tax is less than, equal to, or greater than the subsidies for health care? We have some evidence that the former is declining, but did it start from a surplus? Were they equal in value in the recent past? A certain amount is unclear from this less-that-perfectly-clear prompt.

Prompt question:
Which one of the following is best supported on the basis of the information above?
A standard question. On the GMAT, this would mean: which answer is a completely unarguably obvious conclusion to the prompt? One answer should be a 100% clear inference, and the others should be ambiguous or debatable.

(A) If the rising trend in shopping across the border continues at similar substantial levels and the health care subsidy is maintained by the Italian government, the tax that is levied on electronic goods in Italy will be assessed at a higher rate.
In addition to the ambiguity in the prompt, here's the big problem here. What does it mean to say that "the health care subsidy is maintained"? If we are saying that a subsidy is maintained, what this means is that the health care programs for the elderly will continue to get the same level of cash from the government. It doesn't necessarily mean that that government will continue to get the cash for these programs from the same sources! The government could adjust the income tax structure, or cut another governmental expense, or place a new tax on cigarettes or gasoline or any one of a dozen other things. I think the author of the question wants us to believe that the statement "the health care subsidy is maintained" means both that the money paid by the government will remain unchanged and the government's source of this money will remain unchanged, but that is far from clear in their wording. I know the question author wanted to consider this choice the OA, but it's not airtight.

(B) If the Italian government seeks to control this situation by levying a tax on electronic goods imported from Slovenia, the situation can be brought to normalcy quite quickly.
This isn't a bad answer, but the wording is funny. Certainly levying a tax, a tariff, on electronic goods imported from Slovenia would offset at least some of the losses, but whether it would restore the previous status quo is far from clear. The economy of any country always has thousands of moving parts, and so it is usually hard to "get back" to some previous state. This is stronger than (A), but not ideal.

(C) The health care subsidy that the Italian government provides to the elderly has been steadily increasing in recent years.
Irrelevant and not supported.

(D) The same brands of electronic goods available in Italy are available to Italians in Slovenia.
Irrelevant and not supported.

(E) No extra tax is levied on electronic goods that are bought in Slovenia and brought into Italy.
We don't know this. It could be true, but we don't know.

This is a very sloppy question. The last three answers are slum-dunk wrong, very easy-to-spot wrong answers, and neither (A) nor (B) is a perfectly clear correct answer. I would give this question a grade of an F.

Here's a much higher quality CR practice question:
The Canadian elk

Mike :-)
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The Italian government subsidizes health care for the elderly and this 23 Oct 2016, 07:29
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mukulgupta5
The Italian government subsidizes health care for the elderly and this cost is redeemed by the extra tax that it levies on sales of electronic goods. Consequently, Italians increasingly resort to crossing the borders to shop in Slovenia, where the prices for electronic goods are lower, largely because Slovenia does not apply that tax on electronic goods.

Which one of the following is best supported on the basis of the information above?

(A) If the rising trend in shopping across the border continues at similar substantial levels and the health care subsidy is maintained by the Italian government, the tax that is levied on electronic goods in Italy will be assessed at a higher rate.
(B) If the Italian government seeks to control this situation by levying a tax on electronic goods imported from Slovenia, the situation can be brought to normalcy quite quickly.
(C) The health care subsidy that the Italian government provides to the elderly has been steadily increasing in recent years.
(D) The same brands of electronic goods available in Italy are available to Italians in Slovenia.
(E) No extra tax is levied on electronic goods that are bought in Slovenia and brought into Italy.
Dear mukulgupta5,
I'm happy to respond. :-) My friend, I don't have a very high opinion of this question. It is not as tight as a real GMAT CR question.

Prompt:
The Italian government subsidizes health care for the elderly and this cost is redeemed by the extra tax that it levies on sales of electronic goods. Consequently, Italians increasingly resort to crossing the borders to shop in Slovenia, where the prices for electronic goods are lower, largely because Slovenia does not apply that tax on electronic goods.
Interesting. Do we know that the cost taken in by this extra tax is less than, equal to, or greater than the subsidies for health care? We have some evidence that the former is declining, but did it start from a surplus? Were they equal in value in the recent past? A certain amount is unclear from this less-that-perfectly-clear prompt.

Prompt question:
Which one of the following is best supported on the basis of the information above?
A standard question. On the GMAT, this would mean: which answer is a completely unarguably obvious conclusion to the prompt? One answer should be a 100% clear inference, and the others should be ambiguous or debatable.

(A) If the rising trend in shopping across the border continues at similar substantial levels and the health care subsidy is maintained by the Italian government, the tax that is levied on electronic goods in Italy will be assessed at a higher rate.
In addition to the ambiguity in the prompt, here's the big problem here. What does it mean to say that "the health care subsidy is maintained"? If we are saying that a subsidy is maintained, what this means is that the health care programs for the elderly will continue to get the same level of cash from the government. It doesn't necessarily mean that that government will continue to get the cash for these programs from the same sources! The government could adjust the income tax structure, or cut another governmental expense, or place a new tax on cigarettes or gasoline or any one of a dozen other things. I think the author of the question wants us to believe that the statement "the health care subsidy is maintained" means both that the money paid by the government will remain unchanged and the government's source of this money will remain unchanged, but that is far from clear in their wording. I know the question author wanted to consider this choice the OA, but it's not airtight.

(B) If the Italian government seeks to control this situation by levying a tax on electronic goods imported from Slovenia, the situation can be brought to normalcy quite quickly.
This isn't a bad answer, but the wording is funny. Certainly levying a tax, a tariff, on electronic goods imported from Slovenia would offset at least some of the losses, but whether it would restore the previous status quo is far from clear. The economy of any country always has thousands of moving parts, and so it is usually hard to "get back" to some previous state. This is stronger than (A), but not ideal.

(C) The health care subsidy that the Italian government provides to the elderly has been steadily increasing in recent years.
Irrelevant and not supported.

(D) The same brands of electronic goods available in Italy are available to Italians in Slovenia.
Irrelevant and not supported.

(E) No extra tax is levied on electronic goods that are bought in Slovenia and brought into Italy.
We don't know this. It could be true, but we don't know.

This is a very sloppy question. The last three answers are slum-dunk wrong, very easy-to-spot wrong answers, and neither (A) nor (B) is a perfectly clear correct answer. I would give this question a grade of an F.

Here's a much higher quality CR practice question:
The Canadian elk

Mike :-)
Show more

Hi Mike,

"Supports" is a pointer that can be used for both inference & strengthen questions. In that case, how do i differentiate between whether the question being asked belongs to Inference / strengthen ?

Can anyone explain this???
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The Italian government subsidizes health care for the elderly and this 24 Oct 2016, 09:59
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emmafoster
Hi Mike,

"Supports" is a pointer that can be used for both inference & strengthen questions. In that case, how do i differentiate between whether the question being asked belongs to Inference / strengthen ?

Can anyone explain this???
Show more
Dear emmafoster,

I'm happy to respond. :-)

With the GMAT CR, including the prompt questions, critical reading is always important. The GMAT has several different ways to phrase the same basic ideas.

Having said that, here's a rough guideline. If the prompt is asking us to support the argument, if the direction of support is from the statements to the argument, then that's a "strengthen the argument" question. If the prompt question is asking which statement is supported, if the direction of support is from the prompt argument to the statements, then that's an inference question.

Does this make sense?
Mike :-)
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The Italian government subsidizes health care for the elderly and this 24 Oct 2016, 14:11
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emmafoster
Hi Mike,

"Supports" is a pointer that can be used for both inference & strengthen questions. In that case, how do i differentiate between whether the question being asked belongs to Inference / strengthen ?

Can anyone explain this???
Dear emmafoster,

I'm happy to respond. :-)

With the GMAT CR, including the prompt questions, critical reading is always important. The GMAT has several different ways to phrase the same basic ideas.

Having said that, here's a rough guideline. If the prompt is asking us to support the argument, if the direction of support is from the statements to the argument, then that's a "strengthen the argument" question. If the prompt question is asking which statement is supported, if the direction of support is from the prompt argument to the statements, then that's an inference question.

Does this make sense?
Mike :-)
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Thanks a lot mike! I will try to apply your inputs!
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allenmartin1986
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The Italian government subsidizes health care for the elderly and this 27 Aug 2017, 10:18
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mukulgupta5
The Italian government subsidizes health care for the elderly and this cost is redeemed by the extra tax that it levies on sales of electronic goods. Consequently, Italians increasingly resort to crossing the borders to shop in Slovenia, where the prices for electronic goods are lower, largely because Slovenia does not apply that tax on electronic goods.

Which one of the following is best supported on the basis of the information above?

(A) If the rising trend in shopping across the border continues at similar substantial levels and the health care subsidy is maintained by the Italian government, the tax that is levied on electronic goods in Italy will be assessed at a higher rate.
(B) If the Italian government seeks to control this situation by levying a tax on electronic goods imported from Slovenia, the situation can be brought to normalcy quite quickly.
(C) The health care subsidy that the Italian government provides to the elderly has been steadily increasing in recent years.
(D) The same brands of electronic goods available in Italy are available to Italians in Slovenia.
(E) No extra tax is levied on electronic goods that are bought in Slovenia and brought into Italy.
Show more

It cant be A. If anything the Govt will have to reduce tax or not tax to have fewer people going to Slovenia. If the tax rate is increased more people will buy from Slovenia.

E seems legit as the only advantage of buying from slovenia is the absence of taxation in slovenia and further no taxes are levied while these items cross into italy. Even option B is similar to this.
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The Italian government subsidizes health care for the elderly and this 01 Jul 2018, 01:24
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As far as my understanding goes, the only reason for buying the electronics from Slovenia is so that the Italians can avoid the extra tax levied in Italy. And if we can establish the fact that there are no extra taxes that will be levied for buying something in Slovenia and getting in Italy, it should strengthen the argument. So why is E wrong??
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The Italian government subsidizes health care for the elderly and this 25 Feb 2025, 20:17
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