Self-study
Some government economists view their home countries as immune to outside influence. ███ █████████ ███ ██████ ████ ████████ █████████████ █████ █████████████ ███████ ██████ ███ ██████ ████ ██ ██████████ ███████ ███ ████████████ ██ █ █████████ █████ ██ █████████████ ████ ██ ███ ███████████ ██ █████████ ████████████ ███████ ██████████ ██████████ ████ ████ ██████ ████████ ███████ ██ █████ ████████ █████████ ███ ██ ████████
Summary
The author concludes that government economists must look beyond national borders in order for their nations’ economies to prosper. This is based on the fact that economies are always open systems — in other words, things outside a nation’s borders can significantly affect an economy.
Missing Connection
The premise establishes that things beyond a nation’s borders can significantly affect a nation’s economy. But this doesn’t establish what government economists must look at in order for their nations’ economies to prosper. Why couldn’t the economists simply focus on things internal to the nation? Sure, there are external factors that influence the economy, but do we have to pay attention to them? Maybe internal factors alone are enough to allow a nation’s economy to prosper.
21.
The argument's conclusion follows logically ██ █████ ███ ██ ███ █████████ ██ ████████
a
A national economy ██████ ███████ ██████ █████ ███████████ █████████ ██ ██ ███ ████ ████████ ██ ████ ████████ ██████████ ███████████
The premise establishes that there’s at least one significant influence on an economy that’s beyond a nation’s borders — international trade. According to (A), then, in order for a nation’s economy to prosper, government economists must examine international trade. This proves that in order for a nation’s economy to prosper, government economists must examine at least one thing beyond their nation’s borders.
b
Economics is weakly █████████ ██ ███ ████████ █████████
(B) doesn’t establish what government economists need to examine in order for an economy to prosper. The fact economics is somewhat analagous to physical sciences does not lead to anything specific about what government economists need to do.
c
Economic theories relying ██ █████████████ ███ █████████ ████ ████████ ████ ████████ ████████ ████ ██ ███ ████ ██ ██████████████
(C) doesn’t establish what government economists need to examine in order for an economy to prosper. Learning what kind of economic theory is more or less accurate doesn’t support anything specific about what government economists need to do.
d
International trade is ███ ███████ ███████████ ████████ ███████████ ██████ ███ ██████
We already know from the premises that international trade significantly influences prices and wages. Learning that it’s the most significant factor in prices and wages doesn’t establish what government economists need to examine in order for an economy to prosper. Do they need to examine things that are the primary variables influencing prices and wages? We don’t know.
e
Some government economists ████ ████ ████████ ███ ███████ ██ █████████████ █████ ██ ██████ ███ ██████
We’re trying to prove that government economists need to do something. What some of them currently do doesn’t establish what they need to do.