V01-14

Official Solution:


Government officials who run for an elected office do so because they want to be of service to the public. If, however, an elected Government official publishes a book revealing information that had not previously been made public and profits from the publication, that person’s career has inarguably come to an end because he or she will never again be trusted by other members of the government.

The argument in the passage above rests on which of the following assumptions?


A. Most government officials run for elected office in order to serve the public.
B. Government officials must keep information secret.
C. Trust is essential for a career as an elected Government official.
D. Members of the government frequently do not trust authors of books.
E. Government officials will seek to profit from their access to privileged information if given the opportunity.


A. The passage deals with only the elected Government officials, not Government officials in general. Whether most Government officials or a few Government officials seek office have no bearing on the argument.

B. Whether the officials MUST or MUST not keep information secret is not a part of this argument chain. The passage implies that publishing a book for own profit leads to loss of trust, but if the revelation of a secret is not with the intention of personal profit, then it is not necessary that trust would be lost by revealing a secret and hence not necessary that career would come to end.

Moreover the word "MUST" implies a mandate. It is not a necessary assumption that there is a mandatory requirement that Government officials keep information secret. In addition, the passage deals with only the elected Government officials, not Government officials in general.

C. CORRECT. The reasoning chain in this argument is as follows:

The assumption is therefore: Trust is essential for a political career. Using negation technique to check validity of assumption, if trust is NOT an essential factor for political career, then losing trust does not necessarily mean end of political career - the argument breaks down negating option C. Option C is therefore an assumption.

D. This claim is not made in the passage.

E. Though the author discusses possible consequences when this does occur, the passage does not make the claim about most Government officials.


Answer: C