Self-study
In opposing the 1970 Clean Air Act, the United States automobile industry argued that meeting the act’s standards for automobile emissions was neither economically feasible nor environmentally necessary. ████████ ███ █████████ ██████████ ████████ ██ █████ ███████ ██████████ ██ ████ ███ ████ █████████ ████████████ ██████████ ██████████ ███ ████████ ███████ ███ ██████████████ ███████ ██ ████ ███████████ ████ █████ ███████ ████████████ ██ ██████████ ██████████ ███ ██████████ ███████ ████ █████ ███ ████████████ █████ ██ ██████ █████████ ███ ███████████ ██ ███████ ██ ████ ███ ██████████ ████████ ███ ██████████ ████████████ ████████ ██████ ███ ██ ███████
Reading The Stem: It’s Important
In this question, we’re tasked with providing additional information that would strengthen the automakers’ current position. When a question stem is at all unique, pay special attention to that unique element – wrong answer choices will often take advantage of people who forget about it.
In this question, for instance, every wrong answer choice arguably strengthens the author’s position instead of the automakers’.
A clear understanding of this question’s stem also lets us cut through all the faff in the stimulus. We’re just looking for the automakers’ current position! Everything else is secondary.
Anticipating The Answer
We gotta rummage through a dumpster full of irrelevant nonsense to find the automaker’s current position:
[The tighter restrictions on automobile emissions featured in the new legislation] are 1) too expensive, and 2) unnecessary to curb air pollution.
With that position in hand, though, our task is quite simple: find the answer choice that strengthens one or both of those claims. We’re looking for something like:
Restrictions on emissions are hella expensive [for some reason].
or…
We can totally curb air pollution without needing these restrictions [for some reason].
Analysis by MichaelWright
25.
Which one of the following, ██ █████ █████ ███ ████ ███████ ██ ███ █████████████ ███████ █████████
a
The more stringent ███ ███████████ ███████████ █████████ ████████ ███ ████ █████████ ██ ███████ ███ ██████████ ██ ███████ ███ ████████ ██████████ █████████████
b
Emissions-restriction technology can █████ ██ ██████████ ██ ██ ██ █████ ████████ ███ ██████████ ████ █████ ██ ██████████ ████ █████
c
Not every new █████ ██ ███████████ ███████████ █████████ ████████ ███ ██████████ ██████████ ██ █████ ███ ██████████ ██ ██████ ████ ███
d
The more automobiles █████ ███ ██ ███ █████ ███ ████ █████████ ████████ ████████████ ████ ██ ██ ███████ █████████ ███████ ███ ██████████
e
Unless forced to ██ ██ ██ ███ ███████████ ██████████ ██████ ████ ███████ ██ ██████████ ██████████ ████ ██ ███ ███████ ██ ██████████████