PrepTest 138 - Section 1 - Passage 4 - Question 24

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Passage A.

Topic of passage A · Reasons to not prosecute

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Premise 1 · Laws are overinclusive

They end up accidentally forbidding some acts that weren't meant to be forbidden.

Premise 2 · Always enforcing overinclusive laws means harming the innocent

Premise 3 · Instead, can choose to sometimes not prosecute ("discretionary nonenforcement")

Raise question · How law enforcement actually decides if/when to not prosecute

Does law enforcement actually prosecute for acts that weren't intended to be punished?

Author's perspective · Law enforcement mostly chooses not to prosecute acts that weren't intended to be punished

Punishing acts that weren't meant to be punished ("capricious enforcement") does occur, but it's not the norm because legislative oversight helps to counteract it.

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Problem · Overdue water bills

Solution · Selectively punish only some residents

Alternative solution · Lien

Overdue bills are collected later, when the property is sold

Passage Style

24.

Which one of the following ██████████ ███ ██ ████████ ████ ███ ████████ ██ ███████ ██

Most water customers ██ ███ ████ ███ ████ ██████ █████ █████ ██████

Although we know that 231,000 cusomters are late paying their water bills, we don’t know whether this constitutes “most” (over half) customers.

Most of the ██████████ ████ ███████████ █████ █████ ███ ██ ███ ██████ ███████████ ██████████████

Although officials plan to target only high-income neighborhoods when cutting off water, we don’t know whether “most” (over half) of residences with outstanding bills are in these neighborhoods.

It is appropriate ██ ████ ███ ███ █████ ██ ███████████ █████████ ██ ███ ████ ███ ███ █████ █████ █████ █ ███ ████ █████

Passage B doesn’t discuss what is appropriate for people who are only a few days late in paying their water bills. It mentions that some high-income residents who haven’t paid in months or decades are in “no position to complain,” but this doesn’t reveal what the author thinks is appropriate for those who are only a few days late in paying bills.

11%

In recent years, ███ ████ ███ ███████ ██ █████ ██████ ███ ███ █████ ██ █████████ ███ ████ ████ ██████ █████ █████ ██████

Supported. We’re told that officials are “planning” to selectively cut water to “a few” residences. This suggests the city doesn’t already have a wide practice of cutting off the water of late-paying customers. In addition, the author suggests there will be political damage from the decision to shut off water. This suggests the decision is something that hasn’t been frequently made before.

67%

The only reasonable ████████ ██ ███ ███████ ██ ███████ █████ █████ ██ ███ ████ ██ ██ █████ █ ███ ████ ██████████ █████ █████ ██ ██████

The author doesn’t suggest that this is “the only” reasonable solution. Although the author suggests that it’s one solution, we have no reason to think the author thinks there’s no other reasonable solution.

18%

PrepTest 138 - Section 1 - Passage 4 - Question 24

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