Self-study
Support A law is futile unless most of the parties subject to it abide by it willingly. █████ █████ ███ ██ ██ █████████████ █████████████ ████████ ██ ███ ███████ ██ ██████████ █████ ███ ███████ █████ █████████ ████ ██ █████ █████ ████ █████ ███ ███████████
Summary
The author concludes that there cannot be a comprehensive international solution to pollution. The reasoning is that an effective law requires willing compliance, and that few nations would willingly give up power over their own industries.
Notable Assumptions
One assumption is that solving the problem of pollution requires nations to give up power. The author believes that there cannot be an effective law solving pollution, because such a law requires nations to comply willingly, and they would not give up power willingly. But if they don’t need to give up power, they might comply willingly, and then there could be an effective legal solution.
Another assumption is that a comprehensive international solution must be accomplished through laws. But there could be a non-legal solution, in which case countries might not have to willingly give up power.
11.
Which one of the following ██ ██ ██████████ ████████ ██ ███ █████████
a
A comprehensive solution ██ ███ ████████ ██ █████████ █████ ███████ █████ ███████ ██ █████████████ ████
It’s not necessary for a solution to require changes in international law. What if the laws already exist, but are just ineffective because nations won’t abide by them willingly, because they don’t want to give up power? We don’t necessarily need new laws.
b
Some nations would ██ ████████ ██ ████ ██ ████ ██ █████ █████ ████ █████ ███ ██████████ ██ ████ ██ ███ █████████████ ████████ ██ ███ ███████ ██ ██████████
The author concludes that there cannot be a solution because nations wouldn’t willingly give up power, and laws are futile without willing compliance.
But if nations didn’t even need to give up power, then nations might be willing to comply. (B) shields us from this loophole.
c
If most nations ████ ███████ ██ █████ ██ █████████████ ████ ████ █████ █████ ██ █ █████████████ ████████ ██ ███ ███████ ██ ██████████
The argument is that there cannot be a solution because effective laws require nations to abide by them, which won’t happen because nations won’t cede power. This could be true even if there was ultimately no solution — there could be other reasons why a solution won’t happen.
d
The problems created ██ █████████ ██████ ████ ██ ███ ███████ ████████ ███ ███ █████████ ██████ ██ ████████ ██ ███ ██████████ ██ ██████████ ███ ████████
(D) deals with the the causes and effects of pollution, whereas the argument deals with finding a solution. Even if the pollution is produced by many nations or impacts few nations, this wouldn’t affect the argument.
e
Most of the ███████ █████████████ ████ ██████████ █████████ ██ ███ ███████ ███████ ██ ████ ██ ███ ██ █████ █████ ████ █████ ███ ███████████
(E) does not impact the argument, because what is true of current laws is not necessarily true of future laws. Additionally, if nations were not required to give up any power, this would actually undermine the argument.