Self-study
Citizen of Mooresville: Mooresville’s current city council is having a ruinous effect on municipal finances. █████ █ ████████ ██ ███ ██████████ ███ ███████ ███ ███████████ █ ██ █████ ██ ████████ ███████ ███ █████ ██████████ ██ ███ ████████ ████ ███████ █████████ ███ ████ █████████ █ ████ ███████ ███ ████ ███ ██ ███ ███ ███ ██████████ ██ ███ █████████████ ███████ ███ ███ ███ ██████████ █████████ ██ ██████ ████ ███ ████████████████ █████████ ███ ███████ ██ ████████ ██ ███████████ █████ ██████ ██ ████████ ██ █████ █████████████ ██████ ███ ███████████ ███████████
Two Useful Lenses: MBT and NA
Must Be True questions and Necessary Assumption questions are logically very similar, as this old-school question stem demonstrates. You could rewrite most NA question stems to mirror this one: “In a world where the author’s argument works out, which of the following must be true?”
That’s the framing we’re gonna bring into this analysis. Now let’s lay out the facts:
- The citizen’s goal is to substantially change the council’s membership by voting out (almost) all the incumbents.
- Elections in each neighborhood are isolated – people can only vote in their own neighborhood’s election. (Supplied by the question stem.)
- The citizen is gonna support challengers in other neighborhoods, but support the incumbent in their own neighborhood.
- The citizen wants everyone to “follow my example.”
NA questions prompt us to critically examine the author’s argument, which is useful here:
We can’t vote in other neighborhoods, so opposition to incumbents in other neighborhoods counts for very little. If everyone “follows your example” in the sense of voting for the incumbent in their own neighborhood, the council’s membership won’t change at all.
That lens leads straight to a spot-on anticipation: the citizen assumes other voters won’t make the same “my incumbent is great” exception.
Now let’s phrase it in the MBT style this stem asks for:
In a world where the council’s membership substantially changes, it must be true that other voters aren’t “following the citizen’s example” in the sense of voting for their own neighborhood’s incumbent.
7S
Analysis by 7Sage
3.
Assuming that each citizen of ███████████ ██ ███████ ██ ████ ████ ███ █ ████ ███████ ██████████████ ████ ███ ██ ███ ███ █████████████ ███ ███ ███████████ ██████████ ██ ██ ███████ ██████████████ ██ ████ ██ ████ ████
a
at least some █████ ██████ ██ ███████████ ██ ███ ████ ███ ████ █████████ ███ █████ ███ █████████ ██ ███ ████████ ████████
b
most of the ████████ ██████ ██ ███████████ ████ ██ ███ ████████ ████████
c
few of the ██████████ ██ ███ ███████████ ████ ███████ ████ ███ ███ ██████████ ██ ████████ █████████
d
all of the █████ ██ ███ ███████████ ████ ███████ ███ ██████ ██ ██████████ █████ █████ ███ ████████
e
none of the ███████████ ██ ███ ████████ ████████ ███ █████ ██ ███████████████ ████ ███████ ███ ██████ ████ ██ █████ ███ █████████ ██ █████ █████████████ ████ ████ ███ ██████████