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Akela
In order to reduce traffic congestion and raise revenue for the city, the mayor plans to implement a charge of $10 per day for driving in the downtown area. Payment of this charge will be enforced using a highly sophisticated system that employs digital cameras and computerized automobile registration. This system will not be ready until the end of next year. Without this system, however, mass evasion of the charge will result. Therefore, when the mayor’s plan is first implemented, payment of the charge will not be effectively enforced.

Which one of the following is an assumption on which the argument depends for its conclusion to be properly drawn?

Premise:
The mayor plans to implement a charge for driving.
Mass evasion of the charge will result unless the highly sophisticated system is used.
This system will not be ready until the end of next year.

Conclusion:
If the mayor's plan is first implemented, the payment of the charge will not be effectively enforced.

The conclusion states that the payment of charge will not be effectively enforced because of mass evasion. However, the mass evasion is due to the lack of that highly sophisticated system. This means that the mayor's plan to charge for driving will be implemented before that system is ready, or before the end of next year. Choice A states this logic well.

do you know what source of this question is?

to all test takers, using POE, A is left. Here, ones can see that an assumption is much different from a weaken. In this question, the assumption is what makes the conclusion hold true. In A, if the charge is implemented after the end of the year, then the conclusion is no longer true.
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hello, in this question, can the answer (A) also be treated as an inference?
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Hi,

I think this is a stretch! Focus on the precise wording in the passage: This system will not be ready until the end of next year.

Does the passage state that the plan will start before the system is ready? No, it just says that the system will not be ready until end of next year. It does not specify when the plan will begin. I dont believe it can be considered a valid inference because there is still quite some ambiguity in the timeline.

Hope this helps!
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hello, in this question, can the answer (A) also be treated as an inference?
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conclusion= when plan is implemented, payment of charge wont be enforced
reason= reduce traffic and increase revenue, plan to charge 10$ in downtown area.
use highly sophisticated system with digital cameras and computerized registration.
without system mass evasion of charge will result.

A. it make complete sense. because the system wont be ready until the end of the next year. so even if they implement the plan, payment of charge wont be enforced effectively.
B budget deficit is not imp.
C. irrelevant
D. wrong comparison
E. irrelevant.
sgrover18
In order to reduce traffic congestion and raise revenue for the city, the mayor plans to implement a charge of $10 per day for driving in the downtown area. Payment of this charge will be enforced using a highly sophisticated system that employs digital cameras and computerized automobile registration. This system will not be ready until the end of next year. Without this system, however, mass evasion of the charge will result. Therefore, when the mayor’s plan is first implemented, payment of the charge will not be effectively enforced.

Which one of the following is an assumption on which the argument depends for its conclusion to be properly drawn?

(A) The mayor’s plan to charge for driving downtown will be implemented before the end of next year.

(B) The city will incur a budget deficit if it does not receive the revenue it expects to raise from the charge for driving downtown.

(C) The plan to charge for driving downtown should be implemented as soon as payment of the charge can be effectively enforced.

(D) Raising revenue is a more important consideration for the city than is reducing traffic congestion.

(E) A daily charge for driving downtown is the most effective way to reduce traffic congestion.

Hi All,

While i agree that option C talks about the penalties which are abolished as per the new proposal, I want to explain why did it become a contender in the first place. Once we understand that, I will be able to explain why is it not a strengthener actually.

The conclusion said that the federal govt will collect a far lower PERCENTAGE OF THE TOTAL TAX owed by delinquents than did state governments. We need to strengthen the conclusion and I will provide an example of how option C SEEMS to do that.


EXAMPLE

A person A owed 100 $ as federal and 100 $ as state tax. Now lets assume federal penalty was 10 % of the tax owed and state penalty was 2 %

So total taxes with the penalty:

Federal : 110 $
State: 102 $

However since the proposed plan only collects 100 dollars in each case, state government earned 98 percent of the total tax it COULD have received ( 100/ 102) whereas federal government only receives 90 percent ( 100/110).

BUT the problem here is that we missed a key statement in the premise itself. The premise states that the new plan allows the delinquents to pay the TOTAL owed tax WITHOUT the penalties. Then later in the conclusion it actually refers to the total tax ( without the penalties) and not actually the total tax the govt COULD have earned.

I made the same mistake and I realised that we need to take official questions just by what is written and not what can be implied. If the question does not explicitly mention COULD, we shouldnt assume.

I hope that this explaination is able to calm the storms in some of your heads. Also I am very new to the verbal analysis culture and I will be more than happy to take feedbacks from the any1 who find the explanation above flawed!.

All the best :)
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