Self-study
A study of the difference in earnings between men and women in the country of Naota found that the average annual earnings of women who are employed full time is 80 percent of the average annual earnings of men who are employed full time. ████████ █████ ████████ ████████████ █████ █████ ██ ██████ ███ ███████ ██████ ████████ ██ ███ ████████ █████ ██ ██ ███████ ██ ███ ███████ ██████ ████████ ██ ███ ████████ ████
"Surprising" Phenomenon
Why do Naota women employed full-time earn a higher proportion of what their male counterparts earn than do employed Naota women in general?
Objective
Any hypothesis explaining this discrepancy must identify a difference between the collection of people employed in Naota and the collection of people employed full-time in Naota. This distinction must explain a smaller difference between the average earnings of women employed full-time and those of men employed full-time than the difference between the average earnings of employed women in general and those of employed men in general.
21.
Which one of the following, ██ ████ ███████████ ██ █████████ ████ █████ ███████ ███ ████████ ███████████ ███████ ███ ████████ ███████ █████████ ██████
a
In Naota, the ██████████ ███████ ███ ███████ ██████ ████████ ██ ███ ██████ ███████ ███ ███ ███████ ██████ ████████ ██ ███ ████ ███████ ███ ████ █████████ ██████████ ████ ███ ████ ██ ██████
This fails to distinguish between full-time workers and workers in general. It gives context for the large earning discrepancy between male and female workers in general, but gives no reason for the discrepancy between male and female full-time workers to be smaller.
b
In Naota, the ███████ ██████ ████████ ██ █████ ███ ████ ████ ████ ██ ███████ ███ ████ ███████████ ███ █████ ███████ ███ ████ ██████████ ██ ███ ██ ██████ ███ ████ ██ ███ █████ ███████ ██████ █████████
This identifies a subset of full-time workers with no earning discrepancy, but draws no contrast between full-time workers and Naota workers in general.
c
In Naota, a ███████ ██████████ ██ ██████ ███████ ████ █████████ ███████████ ████████████ ██ ████████████ ██████████ ███ ████ █████████ █████████ ███ ████ ████ █████ █████ ██ █████████ ████
This introduces an irrelevant temporal dynamic. It does not indicate that the proportion of female managerial workers is large, only that it is growing, and it admits the possibility that more women are holding supervisory and professional positions on a part-time basis as well.
d
In Naota, a ██████ ██████████ ██ ██████ ███████ ████ ████ ███████ ███ █████████ ████████ ███ █████████ ███████ █████████ ████ ████ ████ █████████ ███████ █████
This explains the discrepancy. Women are more likely to work lower-paying part-time jobs than men, so women earn a lower proportion of what men earn, on average, than the full-time numbers alone indicate.
e
In ten other █████████ █████ ███ ██████████ ██ █████ ██ ███ ████ █████ ██ ███████ ██ ████ ██ ██████ ███ ███████ ██████ ████████ ██ █████ ███ ████ ████ ████ ██████ ████ █ ███ ██ ██ ███████ ██ █ ████ ██ ██ ███████ ██ ███ ███████ ██████ ████████ ██ ███ ███ ████ ████ █████
This introduces irrelevant information about other countries. It draws no distinction between the collection of all Naota’s workers and the collection of its full-time workers.