PT106.S1.Q17

PrepTest 106 - Section 1 - Question 17

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When a community opens a large shopping mall, it often expects a boost to the local economy, and in fact a large amount of economic activity goes on in these malls. ███ ███ ████████ ██ ███ █████ ███████ ██ █████████ ████ ███████ ████ ███ █████ ██████ ██ ████████ ████████ ████ ████ ██ ██ ███ █████

Structure: Surprising Phenomenon

The stimulus tells us about a surprising phenomenon. When communities open large malls, these malls host a large amount of economic activity. But the net increase in the local economy is usually significantly less than the total economic activity going on the mall itself.

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17.

Which one of the following, ██ █████ ████ █████ ██ ███████ ███ ███████████ █████████ ██████

a

When large shopping █████ ███ ███ ████ ███████ █ ███ ██ ████████ ███ ████ ███ ███████ ███ ████ ███ ████ ███████ ███████ █████ ████████ ████ ████ ███ ███████████ ████████ ████████ █████████
Incorrect. Even if the new malls attract fewer shoppers than the traditional shopping districts, this doesn’t explain why there is a discrepancy between the amount of economic activity in a new mall and the net increase in the local economy.
2%
b

Most of the █████ █████ ██ █ █████ ████████ ████ ██ █████ ██ ████████ ███ ███ █████ ████████████ ██ ███ ████ ███ ███ █████ ███ ████ ███████ ███ █████████ ███ ████ ████ ███ ████ ██████

Incorrect. If (B) is true, it tells us that most of the economic activity in the mall is actually new: it wouldn't have existed in the community if the mall had not been built. So most of what the mall contributes is actually new activity. The mall isn't just absorbing parts of the local economy that already existed.

Notice that (B) is basically the opposite of what we pre-phrased. If (B) is true, and most of a mall's contribution to the economy is new, then we would expect most of that contribution to show up as a net increase in the whole economy. So (B) does nothing to explain why the net increase in the economy is usually substantially smaller than the economic activity within the mall.

22%
c

Most of the ████ ███████ ██ █████ ████████ █████ ███ ██████ ██ ██████ ███ ████████ █████ ██ ███ █████████ ███ ███ █████ ███ ████ █████ ███ █████ ████ ██ ███ █████ ██ ███ ██████████
Incorrect. (C) has the same problem as (B): it tells us that the mall actually creates a large amount of new economic activity, which does nothing to explain why the net increase in the local economy is smaller than the economic activity in the mall.
1%
d

Most of the █████ █████ ██ █ █████ ████████ ████ ██ █████ ████ █████ ████ ████ █████ █████████ ██ ███ ████ █████████ ███ ████ ████ ███ ████ ██████
Correct. Similar to what we pre-phrased, (D) tells us that the mall doesn’t actually create much new economic activity — it just redirects activity that would already have existed in the local economy. So (D) explains why, even though the mall itself might contain a large amount of economic activity, the net increase in the local economy is relatively small.
69%
e

Most of the ████ ███████ ██ ███ ████████████ ██ █ █████ ████████ ████ ███ ██████████ ███ ████ ██ ███ █████████ ████ ███████ ███ ███ ███████
Incorrect. First of all, we’re only interested in the economic activity going on in the mall once it opens, so the jobs created while the mall is being constructed aren’t relevant. Second, even if the jobs created by the mall are mostly low-paying, the salaries from those jobs alone aren’t all the “economic activity” generated by the mall, which would include buying and selling goods. And knowing this detail about some of the economic activity in the mall still doesn’t explain the difference between the net increase in the entire local economy and the amount of economic activity within the mall.

6%

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