Self-study
Politician: Support Our public libraries are open only on weekdays and generally at times when most children are at school and most adults at work. ██████ ████ █████████ ███ █████ ████████ ████ ███ █████████████ ██ ███ ██████ ██████████ ██████████ ██ ███ █████ ██████████ ███ ███████ ██████ ██████ ██ ████████ ██████ ███ ███████ █████ ███ ███████ ██ ██████ ████ █████████ ███ █████ █████████
Summary
The author concludes that if library hours are NOT changed to better suit taxpayers and their families, then we should not approve new taxes to support the library system.
Why?
Because most taxpayers and their families don’t have many opportunities to use public libraries.
Notable Assumptions
We’re trying to prove that, if we don’t change library hours to make the library more accessbile to taxpayers, we should not approve new taxes to support the library system. But notice that the premise doesn’t tell us anything about when new taxes should not be approved. We want a premise that will connect the premise to the conclusion that, if we don’t change library hours, new taxes shouldn’t be approved. For example:
If library hours are inconvenient for taxpayers and their families, then if we don’t change those library hours to make them more convenient, we should not approve new taxes for the library.
14.
Which one of the following ███████████ ██ ██████ █████ ████ ████ ██ ███████ ███ ████████████ ██████████
a
Libraries and other ██████ ██████████ ████ █████ ██ ███████████ ███████ ██████ ██ ████ ██ ██████████ ██ ████████ ███ █████████ ███ █████ ████████ ██ ████
If (A) is true, that provides a reason to change library hours. But, it doesn’t provide any reason that new taxes shouldn’t be approved. (A) doesn’t connect library hours to approval of new taxes, so it doesn’t help to justify the conclusion.
b
If use of █ ██████ ████████ ██ ████ ████ ██████████ ███ █████████ ███ █████ █████████ ████ ███ █████ ██████████ ████ ████████ ██████ ██ █████████
(B) is a classic trap answer, because it confuses sufficiency and necessity. It tells us that if use of a public facility is made more convenient, then new taxes should be approved. But, we weren’t trying to prove that new taxes should be approved if access to libraries is made more convenient. We were trying to prove that new taxes should not be approved if access to libraries are not made more convenient. Adding (B) to the argument wouldn’t help us reach a conclusion about when new taxes should not be approved.
c
Taxpayers who have ██████ ██ █████████████ ██ ███ █ ██████ ████████ ██████ ████ ██ ███ █████ ██ ███████ ████ █████████
(C) tells us only about who should be required to pay taxes. But that doesn’t help establish that new taxes should not be approved.
d
The best way ██ ████████ █████ ██ ██████ █████████ ██ ██ ██████ ███ ███████ █████ ███ ███ ███████████ ██ ████ ███████
(D) establishes that if we want to increase usage of public libraries, one effective strategy would be to change library hours to make them more convenient. But it doesn’t connect library hours to why we shouldn’t approve new taxes.
e
A new tax ██████████ █ ██████ ████████ ██████ ██ ████████ ████ ████ ████ █████████ ████ █████ █████████████ ██ ███ ████ █████████
(E) provides a premise-to-conclusion bridge between the support – which established that most taxpayers don’t have ample opportunities to use public libraries – and the conclusion – which asserted that new taxes for libraries shouldn’t be approved. According to (E), if most taxpayers don’t have ample opportunities to use a facility (as we were told they don’t with respect to the library), then a new tax supporting that facility should not be approved.