Frobnia's economy relies on two major industries. The oil fields in so

Question

Frobnia's economy relies on two major industries. The oil fields in south Frobnia allow the country to export petroleum and the natural landmarks in the north attract hundreds of thousands of tourists each year. Tourism employs more than one-third of working Frobnians, and the oil fields employ less than half as many. However, about half of the population of Frobnia lives in the south.

The information given, if accurate, most strongly supports which of the following?

(A) To remain fully staffed, tourism-related companies in Frobnia must recruit in the south.

(B) Most of the people in Frobnia who are not employed live in the south.

(C) Many employed Frobnians in the south work for petroleum-related companies apart from the oil Öelds, such as refineries.

(D) A higher proportion of Frobnians working in the north work in one of Frobniaís two major industries than the proportion of Frobnians in the south who do.

(E) Frobniaís oil fields are not a major tourist attraction, but a small number of visitors include the oil fields as part of their travel.

Bunuel · Accepted Answer

OFFICIAL EXPLANATION

D

The phrase "most strongly supports" indicates an inference question. It's not explicitly an explanation or paradox question, but the passage does have a bit of a discrepancy, between the employment figures in the two regions compared to the different population figures in the two regions.

Choice (A) assumes too much - there may well be enough people in the north to staff tourism-related companies. Beyond that, even if it weren't true, there's no reason the outside recruiting would have to take place in the south. (B) is only true if oil and tourism are the only two industries. Just because they are the largest doesn't mean they are the only ones; they could actually represent a small portion of the economy. (C) explains how more people in the south might be related to the oil industry, but there's no support for this. We don't know that refineries (or other oil-related companies) are in the south, or even in Frobnia at all.

Choice (D) is our answer. We know that more than one-third of working Frobnians work in the tourism industry (which is in the north), while less than one-sixth work in the oil fields (in the south). Thus, a higher proportion of Frobnians work for either tourism or oil in the north than for tourism or oil in the south. (E) is a huge leap, and out of the scope of the passage. We have no idea whether tourists also visit the south. The passage is concerned with employment numbers. Choice (D) is correct.

Aswin12 · Answer

Option D is the correct answer. 
This is an inference type question.

Frobnia's economy relies on two major industries. The oil fields in south Frobnia allow the country to export petroleum and the natural landmarks in the north attract hundreds of thousands of tourists each year. Tourism employs more than one-third of working Frobnians, and the oil fields employ less than half as many. However, about half of the population of Frobnia lives in the south.

The information given, if accurate, most strongly supports which of the following?

(A) To remain fully staffed, tourism-related companies in Frobnia must recruit in the south. -  its not stated anywhere in the passage that tourism companies are not fully staffed and besides only 1/3rd of the North's population is employed in tourism

(B) Most of the people in Frobnia who are not employed live in the south. -  The passage only states a certain proportion of Southerners are employed in one of the two major industries we cant infer that the rest of the population is unemployed

(C) Many employed Frobnians in the south work for petroleum-related companies apart from the oil fields, such as refineries. again this cannot be inferred we don't know what proportion of people employed in the south in fields other than the oil fields

(D) A higher proportion of Frobnians working in the north work in one of Frobniaís two major industries than the proportion of Frobnians in the south who do.  We know that about half of the population lives in the South hence the other lives in the north. We also get to know from the passage about one third of working Frobnians and less than half of that is employed in the other major industry(oil fields) in the south

(E) Frobniaís oil fields are not a major tourist attraction, but a small number of visitors include the oil fields as part of their travel.-  This can not be infered from the passage

imnishitraj · Answer

the oil fields employ less than half as many- Does this statement half of the one third or half the total population? @bunnel

Kalpit1212 · Answer

I think the language of the question is not clear. "Half as many" by no way means half of the remaining 2/3 employee workforce.

RiyaJ0032 · Answer

Hi  MartyMurray

Could you please explain option (D) here

Thank you so much

MartyMurray · Answer

Let's review what the passage says.

Frobnia's economy relies on two major industries. The oil fields in south Frobnia allow the country to export petroleum and the natural landmarks in the north attract hundreds of thousands of tourists each year. Tourism employs more than one-third of working Frobnians, and the oil fields employ less than half as many. However, about half of the population of Frobnia lives in the south.

We see that "Tourism employs more than one-third of working Frobnians, and the oil fields employ less than half as many."

So, more people are employed in tourism than work in the oil fields.

Now notice the meaning of "about half of the population of Frobnia lives in the south."

That means that about half the population lives in the north as well. So, the population of the north is about the same as the population of the south.

Thus, since tourism employment > oil field employment and north population = south population, we can infer the following:

tourism employment/north population > oil field employment/south population

If we assume that people work in the area in which they live, then a greater proportion of people in the north than of people in the south work in one of the major industries.

That's exactly what (D) says.

(D) A higher proportion of Frobnians working in the north work in one of Frobniaís two major industries than the proportion of Frobnians in the south who do.

Frobnia's economy relies on two major industries. The oil fields in so

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Frobnia's economy relies on two major industries. The oil fields in so

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