Self-study
Taxpayer: For the last ten years, Conclusion Metro City's bridge-maintenance budget of $1 million annually has been a prime example of fiscal irresponsibility. ██ █ ████████ ██████ ████████ ███ ████ █████ █████ ███ ███████ █ ████ ██ ████████████ █████ █████ ███████ ██████ ██████████████ ████ ████████ ███████ ████████ ███ ██████ ██████ ██████████████ ██ ███ ████████ ████████ ██ █ ██████ ██ ███ ███████ ██ ██████████ ███ ████ ██ ███ █████ ████ ████████ ████ ███████ ████ ███ █████ ██ █████████ ██████████████ ██ ███ ████████
Summarize Argument
The taxpayer argues that Metro City’s bridge-maintenance budget has been irresponsible. To support this, the taxpayer points out that if Metro City had spent more on regular bridge upkeep, they would have, in total, spent much less on their bridges.
Identify Conclusion
The conclusion is that the city has been irresponsible by not spending enough to maintain its bridges.
1.
The main point of the ██████████ ████████ ██ ████ █████ ████
a
should have budgeted █████████████ ████ █████ ███ ███████████ ██ ███ ███████
This a good paraphrase of the conclusion. The taxpayer argues that the city was fiscally irresponsible by underfunding bridge maintenance, leading to high emergency repair costs. He contends that the city should have spent “substantially more”—$15 million—to reduce such costs.
b
would have had █ ████████ ██████ ███████ ██ ██ ███ █████ ████ █████ ███ ██████████████ ██ ███ ███████
The taxpayer argues that Metro should’ve spent more on maintenance, not reconstruction. Moreover, he doesn’t claim that more spending on reconstruction (or maintenance) would ensure a well-run program.
This is sufficient and necessary confusion. The argument tells us “If you have a well-run bridge program, then you spend $15 million per year on bridge maintenance.” (B) is switching modified versions of these conditions.
c
is spending more ████ ██ █████ ██ ██ ███████████ ██ ███ ███████
The taxpayer argues the opposite of this claim. The taxpayer contends that the city is spending less than it needs to maintain its bridges. The city only pays $1 million for bridge maintenance, but the taxpayer argues that a “well-run” budget would spend $15 million yearly.
d
is economizing on ███ ██████ ███████ ██ ████ █████ ██ ████ ██ ███████████
The taxpayer does not discuss why the city is economizing. The taxpayer argues that the city’s economizing is ineffective and will ultimately cost more, but the taxpayer does not explain why the city chose to spend so little on bridge maintenance.
e
has bridges that ███ ████ █████████ ██ ████████ ████ ████ ████ ██ █████
The taxpayer discusses reconstruction and maintenance of bridges—not building them.
Also, the taxpayer contends that the city’s bridges are more expensive to reconstruct than maintain.