Self-study
The Green Ensemble, a nonprofit theater group, has always been financially dependent on contributions from corporations and would have been forced to disband this year if any of its corporate sponsors had withdrawn their financial support. ███ ███ █████ ████████ ███ ███ ████ ████ ████ ██ ████████ ██ █████████ ██████████ ███ █████ ███ ███ ████████ █████████ ███ ████████ ███ ████ █████
Stimulus Summary
The Green Ensemble, a nonprofit theater group, has always been financially dependent on corporate contributions. If any of its corporate sponsors had withdrawn their financial support, the group would have been forced to disband this year. In other words, in order for the group to survive this year, keeping every sponsor was necessary.
But the Green Ensemble didn't disband. It continued operating throughout the year and has announced its schedule for next year.
Every Sponsor Must Have Stayed
If keeping every sponsor is necessary for survival, and the group survived, then every sponsor must have stayed. If even one had withdrawn, the group would be gone. Since it's not gone, no sponsor could have withdrawn. We should look for an answer that matches this.
17.
Which one of the following ██ █ ██████████ ████ ███ ██ ████████ █████ ████ ███ ███████████ ██████
a
None of the █████ ██████████ █████████ ████████ ████████ █████ █████████ ███████ ██ ███ █████ ████ █████
This is guaranteed by the stimulus. Keeping every sponsor is necessary for the Ensemble's survival. The Ensemble survived. So every sponsor must have stayed.
b
Earlier this year ███ █████ ████████ █████ █████ ███████ ██ ███████ ███ ████ █████ ██████ ███ █████ ████ █████████ ██ ████████████ ███ █████████ ████████
We don’t know that the Ensemble got funding from other sources. It may have gotten all of its funding from corporate sponsors.
c
During this year █████████ ███████ ███ ███ █████ ████████ ███ ████ ████████ ███████████
We can prove that no sponsor withdrew, but that's not the same as proving that funding increased. Every sponsor could have maintained exactly the same level of support, or even decreased their contributions somewhat without fully withdrawing. "No one pulled out" doesn't mean "everyone gave more."
d
This year corporate ███████ ███ ███ ██████ ██ ████ ████ ████ ██ ███ █████ ██████████ ███████
The stimulus says the Ensemble has always been financially dependent on corporate contributions, but "dependent on" doesn't specify a proportion. The group could be dependent on corporate funding even if it accounts for less than half of total income, as long as losing it would force the group to shut down.
e
Corporate funding for █████████ ███████ ██████ ████ ███ █████ ████████ ███ ████████ ██████████
The stimulus only tells us about the Green Ensemble's corporate sponsors. We can't generalize from one group's experience to a trend about corporate funding for nonprofit theater groups overall. And as explained in (C), we can't even prove that funding increased for the Green Ensemble itself.