Self-study
In the past, the railroads in Ostronia were run as regional monopolies and operated with little regard for what customers wanted. ██ ██████ ██████ ████ ████████████ ██ ███ █████████ ████████ ███████ ████████ ███ ████████ █████████ ████ █████ █████ ███████████ ████ █████████████ ████████ ██████████ ███ ███████ ██ ██████████ █████████ ████ ████ █████████ █████████ ████████ █████████ ██ ███████ ████ █████ █████████ ███████████ ███████ ███ █████████ ████████ ██ █████████ ████████████ █████ ███ ████████
Stimulus Summary
We're told that in the past, Ostronian railways were regional monopolies that didn't pay attention to their customers' needs. Now, the Ostronian highway system has improved to the point where long-distance trucking companies are a major competitor with the railroads. But because government subsidies allow the railway companies to operate even while they are incurring losses, those companies still aren't paying attention to customers' demands.
Notable Inferences: Must Be True
Notice that this is a Must Be True question. These questions often involve conditional logic, since conditional logic allows us to figure out what must be true, not just what is likely to be true. But this stimulus doesn't use any conditional logic. The strongest statement we are given is about causation: the causal factor allowing these companies to survive while incurring losses is the government subsidies. You might be tempted to come up with counterfactual scenarios: if the companies stop receiving these subsidies, they will very likely either go bankrupt or be forced to start listening to customer demand. These inferences about likely scenarios would work well for a Most Strongly Supported question, but not so much for a Must Be True. So it's best to go to the answer choices and proceed by elimination.
8.
If the statements above are █████ █████ ███ ██ ███ █████████ ████ ████ ██ ████ ██ ███ █████ ██ █████
a
If the government ██ ████████ ██████ ██ █████████ ████████ ██████████ ███ ██ █████ █████████ ████ ████████ ██ ████████
This doesn't have to be true. All we know from the stimulus is that if the subsidies stop, the railroad companies will not be able to survive while incurring losses. But it's possible that the subsidies will stop, and many or all of these companies will start listening to customers and making profits. So it doesn't have to be true that only a few will keep operating. Again, for this Must Be True question, we're not looking for an answer choice that could possibly, or even very likely, be true. We need an answer choice that has to be true.
b
Few companies in ████████ ████ ████ ████████ █████████ ████ ███ ██████████ ████ █████ ███ █████ ███ ███████ ██ █████ █████████ ████ ████████
This doesn't have to be true. What this answer choice means is that most companies in Ostronia that have received subsidies have not taken customers' needs and desires into account. We know for sure that some companies in Ostronia that have received subsidies haven't taken customers' needs and desires into account, since the railway companies have received subsidies. But we don't know how many other companies in Ostronia have received government subsidies, or how these other companies relate to customers' needs and desires, so we can't say for sure that most companies in Ostronia that have received subsidies haven't taken into account customers' needs and desires.
c
Without government subsidies, ████████ █████████ ██ ████████ █████ ████ ██ ████████ ███ ██████ ████ ██████ █████ ██████████
This doesn't have to be true. We can infer that if these companies stopped receiving subsidies, they would likely either go out of business or have to change their business practices. But this might not mean raising prices: maybe one reason they are currently making losses is that their prices are too high and customers don't want to pay them.
d
The transportation system ██ ████████ ██ ██ ████ █████████ █████ ████ ██ ███ ██ ███ █████
This doesn't have to be true. In fact, even if we assume Ostronia's train stations have not become any more efficient, we still know the highway network has improved. So if anything, the stimulus suggests the opposite of what (D) is saying: that the transportation system of Ostronia has become more efficient in some respects than in the past.
e
In recent years, ████ █████████ ██ ████████ ████ ████ ███ ██████ ██████ ███ ███ ███████ ██ █████ █████████ ████ ███████████ █████████
Correct. The railroad companies are Ostronian companies that have little regard for the desires of their customers. They have survived in recent years thanks to government subsidies. It follows that some companies in Ostronia with little regard for their customers' desires have survived in recent years.