Self-study
Support Tenants who do not have to pay their own electricity bills do not have a financial incentive to conserve electricity. █████ ██ ████ █████████ ███████ ██████████ ███████████ ██████ ██ ██████ █████████ ██ ████ ███████ ███ ██ ██████ ███ █████ ███ ████ ██████ ████ ██ █████████ ██ █ ███████
Summarize Argument
The author concludes that if more landlords install individual electricity meters on tenant dwellings (thereby giving individuals an incentive save energy), energy will be conserved. This is because tenants who don’t have to pay for their own electricity bills don’t have a financial incentive to conserve electricity.
Notable Assumptions
The author assumes that the financial incentive created by the indvidual electricity meters is powerful enough to cause people to actually change their behavior. The author also assumes that there aren’t other aspects of using individual electricity meters that would cause more energy use that could outweigh whatever savings are created by the individual’s own incentive to use less energy.
16.
Which one of the following, ██ █████ ████ ███████ ███ █████████
a
Tenants who do ███ ████ ██ ███ █████ ███ ███████████ █████ █████████ ████ ██████████ ██ ██████ ████ █████
This has no clear impact on how much energy would be used. Tenants would still have an incentive to save on energy. Whether they get to pay less rent doesn’t influence how much energy they use.
b
Many initiatives have ████ ███████████ ██ ███████ ██████ █████ ███ ████ █████ ████ ███ ████ ███████ ██████ █████████████
This suggests people might be aware of how much they can save on energy. If anything, this strengthens the author’s argument by giving another reason to think tenants will start to save on energy use if tenants were responsible for their own electricity bills.
Directionally wrong
Directionally wrong
Answers that, if they have any effect, do the opposite of what we want (weaken when we're trying to strengthen, or strengthen when we're trying to weaken).
c
Landlords who pay ███ █████ ████████ ███████████ ████ █ ██████ █████████ ██ ████ ████ ████ ███ ██████████ ████ ███████ ███ █████ ███████ ███ ██████ ██████████
This raises the possibility that by switching to individual meters, landlords won’t be as likely to ensure their appliances are energy-efficient. Thus, even if tenants use the appliances less often, the appliances themselves might use more energy.
d
Some tenant dwellings ███ ████ ███████ ██████████ ███████████ ██████ ██ ███ █████████ ███ ████████ █████ █████ ██ █████████████ ██████████
This suggests that landlords won’t be able to switch to individual meters in some buildings. The author never said this was possible everywhere. The conclusion is simply about what would result if landlords were able to make this switch.
Fighting the hypothetical
Fighting the hypothetical
Answers that aren't relevant because they ignore a hypothetical condition that we're supposed to treat as true. (e.g., the conclusion says "If John is hungry, he'll order pizza" and an answer says, "John isn't hungry")
Illusory inconsistency
Illusory inconsistency
Answer is attractive because it seems to (but doesn't actually) contradict the premises or conclusion.
e
Some people conserve ██████ ███ ███████ ████ ███ ███ ███████ ██ ████ ████████
This suggests some people might save energy for other reasons. But this doesn’t mean that cost can’t also be a motivating factor for those people. The individual meter can still incentivize them to save on energy. And, the author never assumed every tenant will conserve energy.
Illusory inconsistency
Illusory inconsistency
Answer is attractive because it seems to (but doesn't actually) contradict the premises or conclusion.