Self-study
Economist: Machinery firms in this country argue that in order to grow big enough to compete successfully with foreign rivals, the protection that they have been receiving from foreign competition must be extended for several more years. ███ █████ █████ ████ ████ █████████ ██████████ ████ ███████ ███████████ ███ ███ ████ ███ ██████ ██ ██ ████ ████████ ███ ██████████ ████ ███████ ███████████ ██ ██████ ████ █████████ █████████ █████ ██ ████ ███ ██████ ██ ███████ ████████████ ████ ███████ ███████ ███ █████ █████ ██ █ ██████████ ████ █████ ███ ████ ██ ███████
Summary
If protection from foreign competition were possible in order to allow domestic machinery firms to successfully compete with foreign machinery firms, ten years would be a sufficient timeframe for this purpose. However domestic machinery firms have had protection from foreign competition for the last ten years, and these firms claim that this protection must be extended for several more years.
Strongly Supported Conclusions
It is not possible that protection from foreign competition will allow domestic machinery firms to grow big enough to compete with foreign machinery firms.
18.
The economist's statements, if true, ████ ████████ ███████ █████ ███ ██ ███ ██████████
a
Protection from foreign ███████████ ██████ ██ ████ ███████ █████ ██ ████ ███ ██████ ██ ███████ ████ ███████ ███████
The Economist’s argument is limited to machinery firms in the Economist’s country. We don’t know whether protection “rarely” allows firms to grow big enough generally. We only know that protection does not allow domestic machinery firms to grow big enough.
b
Ten years is █ ██████████ ████ █████ ███ █████████ ███ ███████ ██ ███ ████████ ███████
We don’t know if ten years is sufficient for evaluating any and every economic policy. We only know ten years is sufficient for evaluating one economic policy that applies to domestic machinery firms.
c
None of the █████████ █████ ██ ███ ███████████ ███████ ███ █████ █████████████ ████ ███ ████ ███ ██████
We don’t know whether or not any machinery firm in the economist’s county has grown “significantly.” We only know that these machinery firms haven’t grown big enough to compete with foreign machinery firms.
d
Most of the █████████ █████ ██ ███ ███████████ ███████ ████ ██ ███ ██ ████████ ██████ ████ ███ █████████ ████ ███████ ████████████
We don’t know whether any of the machinery firms in the Economist’s country will go out of business if these firms are not protected from foreign competition.
e
Protection from foreign ███████████ ████ ███ ██████ █████████ █████ ██ ███ ███████████ ███████ ██ ████ ███ ██████ ██ ████ ██ ███████ ███████
It is not possible that protection from foreign competition will allow domestic machinery firms to grow big enough to compete since these firms have already been receiving protection for ten years.