PrepTest 13 - Section 4 - Question 9 | Explanation & Discussion

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Oscar: Support Emerging information technologies will soon make speed of information processing the single most important factor in the creation of individual, corporate, and national wealth. █████████████ ███ ████████ ██ ███ █████ ████ ████████ ██████████████ ███████ ██████████ ████████ ██████████████ ███████ ███████████ ████ ██ █████████ ████████ █████ ██████ ████ ██ ████ █████████ ███ ████ ██████████ ███ ████ █ ███████████ ████████ ██████████ ████ ███ ██ █ ████████ ██ ███ ████████████ ████████ ███ ████ █ ██████ ██ ███ ████████ ███████ ██ █████████████ █████ ███ █████████████

███████ ███ ███ ████ █████████ ██ ███ █████ ████ ███ ████████ █████████ ██ ███████ █████ ████████████ ███ ████ █████████ ██████ █████ ███ ████████████ ████ ████ ████ █████ ███ ████████ ████████ ███ ███████ █████ ███ ██████

Summarize Argument: Counter-Position

Oscar argues that new information technologies mean that information processing speed will soon become "the single most important factor" for national wealth. Thus, he argues, the old division of the world's countries into wealthy and poor countries based on geography — northern and southern countries, respectively — will be replaced by a division between "fast" and "slow" countries. Oscar concludes that a country's wealth will no longer be based on its geographical location, but on its success in adopting new technologies.

Sylvia replies that poorer southern countries don't have enough economic resources to access these information technologies. Thus, they will stay poor, and these new technologies will just increase the gap between northern and southern countries.

The reasoning that Oscar uses ██ ██████████ ███ ██████████ ██ ██████████ ██ █████████ ██ ███ ██████ ████ ██

Question Type

Flaw or descriptive weakening

Oscar tells us that because of these new information technologies, the speed of information processing will become the "single most important" factor in creating national wealth. But just because this is the most important factor doesn't mean other factors, like geography or pre-existing wealth, aren't relevant. For example, as Sylvia points out, those other factors can determine access to these new technologies.

So a flaw in Oscar's reasoning is that he identifies one factor as the most important and then assumes that other factors will no longer be relevant. He concludes that a country's prosperity will no longer be related to its geographic position and will only depend on its adoption of new technologies.

overlooks the possibility ████ ███ ███████ ██ █████████ ██ ███████ ███ ████████████ ██ ████ ████ ██ ███ ██████ ████ ██████ ██ ███████ █████ ████ █████ ████████████ ███████ ████████ ██████

Incorrect. (A) is tricky, because it sounds similar to what we pre-phrased about Oscar assuming only one factor matters. But Oscar only talks about the most important factor in producing wealth (the speed of information processing), not about factors determining a country's ability to acquire new technologies. Oscar certainly doesn't assume that a country's present economic status is the only factor that matters in allowing it to access new technologies in the future, as (A) suggests he does. In fact, Oscar doesn't talk about what factors determine countries' access to these technologies at all — that point only comes up in Sylvia's argument.

16%

fails to establish ████ ███ ████████ ██ ███ █████ ████ ████ █████████ ███ ████ █████████ ██ ███ ██████ ████ █████████ ███████ ████ ████ ████████ ███ █████ ███████ ██ ███ ██████

Incorrect. Nothing in either Oscar's or Sylvia's arguments suggests that this division between rich and poor countries is the "single most important problem" confronting the world economy in the future. Oscar doesn't even try to establish this point, let alone fail to do so. So (B) is inaccurate.

ignores the possibility █████ ██ ███████████ █ ███████████ ██████ ███████ ███ ███████████ █████████████ ██ ██████████████████████ ████████████ █████ ██ ██████████ ██ █ ███████████ ██ █████ ███████

Correct. (C) is related to what we pre-phrased above. Not only does Oscar fail to consider that even if information-processing technology becomes the most important factor in creating national wealth, other factors could still be relevant in determining access to that technology (as we discussed and as Sylvia points out), Oscar also fails to consider that even if such technology is the most important factor, it could be outweighed by the negative effect of various factors.

For example, even if a country manages to incorporate information-processing technologies to a significant degree, it's possible a combination of other factors — say, a lack of natural resources and bad weather related to a country's geographic location — will outweigh the positive effects of that technology. So (C) accurately describes a flaw in Oscar's argument.

70%

provides no reason ██ ███████ ████ ██████ ███████████ ██████████ ████ ████ ████ ██████████ ███████ ██ █████████ ████ ████████████ ███████████ ███ ███████████ ████████████ ████ █████ █████████

Incorrect. Oscar does not talk about the effects in general of these new technologies on countries that incorporate them. He is specifically talking about the relevance of these technologies to the creation of wealth. Since Oscar never argues that faster information processing will have "only beneficial effects" overall on these countries, he doesn't need to provide a reason to believe this is true.

13%

makes no distinction ███████ █████ ██ ███ █████████ ████ █████████ ████ ███ ███ ██████████ ███ █████ ████ ███ ████ ███████

Incorrect. Oscar's whole argument is that the current distinctions between countries will be reshaped based on incorporation of new information technology. The current, more fine-grained distinctions between the wealthiest countries and countries that are less wealthy, but still rich, aren't relevant to Oscar's argument.

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PrepTest 13 - Section 4 - Question 9

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