When considering the successes and failures of President Lyndon Johnso

Question

When considering the successes and failures of President Lyndon Johnson’s war on poverty, Ron Haskins, senior fellow at the Brookings Institute, concludes that it had many abiding positive effects, including significantly lowering poverty rates among the elderly. Yet, Haskins warns that entrenched as well as accelerating trends are pushing the poverty rate in the wrong direction.

Among these, he warns, is the U.S.’s plummeting rate of marriage. Census data reveal that only 50.5 percent of households reported “married house- hold” in 2012; this compares with just under 66 percent in 1930 and an all-time high of 72.2 percent in 1960. The decline might not prove as interesting if a grittier statistic did not underlie it. In fact, while in 1972 the rates of marriage were about the same among college graduates as those with less education, in 2012 the groups were quite different. Sixty-four percent of college graduates, but only 48 percent of those with less than a college education made up the married class. At the same time, disparities in income between the two groups have been increasing markedly.

Numerous studies have ascertained a link between the unmarried and the lower economic class. In one striking comparison, the National Bureau of Economic Re- search recently found that in married households with occupants ages 65 to 68 median savings is ten times that of unmarried people in the same age group. Such data suggest that a new war on poverty should be aimed at the unmarried in general, while simple, everyday logic suggests that the more apt name for the impoverished is single parents.    1 
 1. The author’s primary concern in the passage is to

(A) describe an increasing anti-marriage sentiment in the United States.
(B) trace the past and future effects of President Johnson’s war on poverty.
(C) explain the history of social phenomena that affect net worth.
(D) examine a key trend for those concerned with poverty in the United States.
(E) analyze the probable causes of falling marriage rates in the United States.

2 
 2. Based only on the information in the passage, with which of the following statements would the author most likely agree?

(A) Arguments that base social programs on statistical analyses are most commonly flawed.
(B) Fewer and fewer college graduates are as well as off now as graduates of previous generations.
(C) Demographic data point convincingly toward decreasing wealth for the elderly.
(D) Falling marriage rates are not worrisome in certain demographics.
(E) Blaming poverty on not being married may not reflect the true picture.

3 
 3. Which of the following issue summary statements is most closely analogous to a summary of the demographic issue described in the passage?

(A) It is better to arrive sooner at a practical supply-chain algorithm than to continue searching indefinitely for the optimal algorithm.
(B) Statistics related to social trends such as social media can often be used to identify seemingly unrelated trends.
(C) The terms in which an argument for surgery is couched are as important as the data that support and explain it.
(D) Prior approaches to practical decisions such as zoning are no guarantee of the future success of such approaches.
(E) Even the most minor deviation from social norms can have important economic implications.

RC Butler 2021  -  Practice Two RC Questions Everyday.   
Passage # 160 Date: 22-Apr-2021
 This question is a part of RC Butler 2021 .  Click here for Details

Tiansu · Answer

1. The author’s primary concern in the passage is to
the article introduced a warning in first paragraph about the trend of poverty; in 2nd paragraph, by quoting many statistic numbers, the author popped up the argument of poverty is linked with marriage status; in the 3rd paragraph, with the necessary discussion, the author conclude that it is mainly the single parent who suffer from the poverty, but no the simple unmarried people made this situation.
So the author, in general, is examining a trend about poverty in US.
D. examine a key trend for those concerned with poverty in the United States.
2. Based only on the information in the passage, with which of the following statements would the author most likely agree?
the last sentence "Such data suggest that a new war on poverty should be aimed at the unmarried in general, while simple, everyday logic suggests that the more apt name for the impoverished is single parents." give the answer:
E. Blaming poverty on not being married may not reflect the true picture.
3. Which of the following issue summary statements is most closely analogous to a summary of the demographic issue described in the passage?
the article talked about that if only the statistic data is investigated, the truth can be ignored. answer B is quite similar.
B. Statistics related to social trends such as social media can often be used to identify seemingly unrelated trends.

Tiansu · Answer

Can you explain question 3?

Sajjad1994 · Answer

Official Explanation

3. Which of the following issue summary statements is most closely analogous to a summary of the demographic issue described in the passage?

Difficulty Level:   Hard

Explanation

The passage ends with the idea that the term unmarried is not the correct term for the problem: the problem is more likely named single parenthood. This is analogous to the call for correct terminology presented in  choice (C).

The correct answer is (C).

Vivek100 · Answer

Dear Sajjad1994
Can you please provide explanation for question 2 and question 3??

Posted from my mobile device

flex28 · Answer

As in my understanding. the clause after "while" is less important because "while" introduces a subordinate clause. Moreover, the author states that the "unmarried" is supported by data while the "single parents" is supported by simple logic. Therefore, I interpret the last sentence as the author emphasizes the correct term is unmarried. Why is it that you think the author implies that unmarried is not the correct term. Please kindly give me instruction on how to understand this sentence.

Sajjad1994 · Answer

In question number three I selected  C  as answer not because it is perfect choice but because other four options are very useless and are making no sense to me. Answer  option A  is totally useless in analogical sense. Answer  option B  was a bit better than  A  but i was not convinced with the use of  "social trends such as social media"  in it and crossed it. Answer  option C  was better than  A  and  B  so kept this and  D  was the second close in my opinion while i was also not convinced with  E .

Remember this is an analogy question and also this is a third party question, sometimes we have to pick up the answer by the sensory cues and not by the perfect logical connection and same is happening here. I would say the quality of this question is compromised and hopefully one will not see such scenario in the real material and test.

Thank you

Sajjad1994 · Answer

Official Explanation 2. Based only on the information in the passage, with which of the following statements would the author most likely agree? Difficulty Level: 700 Explanation While choices (B) and (D) are tempting because they could be true and even possibly consistent with the author’s idea, the best choice is choice (E). It is directly supported by text in the last paragraph. The correct answer is (E). For question number 3 please read my responses in posts in the links below https://gmatclub.com/forum/when-conside ... l#p2652788 https://gmatclub.com/forum/when-conside ... l#p2768632 Best.

oscarpiastri81 · Answer

I believe the level of difficulty tagged is not accurate for this question.

When considering the successes and failures of President Lyndon Johnso

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When considering the successes and failures of President Lyndon Johnso

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615 to 715 in 15 Days (Ria's Strategies)

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