Miranda: The bank should have realized that with all the fast-food places on 10th Street, one lacking indoor seating was likely to fail. So it was irresponsible of them to lend the money for it.
Speaker 1 Summary
Xavier thinks it’s unsurprising that the new fast-food place is kaput. How did he see this coming? Well, there was no indoor seating, and sitting outside breathing exhaust isn’t a popular option.
Speaker 2 Summary
Miranda thinks that it was irresponsible for the bank to lend start-up capital for this new restaurant. Why? Because the bank should also have foreseen the restaurant’s failure, by realizing that the lack of indoor seating was a serious problem.
Objective
We’re looking for a point of agreement. Xavier and Miranda agree the failure of this fast-food restaurant was unsurprising; it was predictable, given the lack of indoor seating, that the new place would likely fail.
A
few people want to sit outside while they eat
Neither Xavier nor Miranda expresses an opinion on this point. Neither one says anything about sitting outside being unpopular in general—even Xavier is only saying that it’s unpopular in the specific context of this one restaurant.
B
banks should not finance restaurants lacking indoor seating
Neither speaker expresses this broad opinion. Xavier never mentions banks, much less what they should or shouldn’t do. Miranda does talk about banks, but doesn’t go as far as saying that banks shouldn’t finance any restaurant without indoor seating, just this one restaurant.
C
if the new fast-food place had indoor seating, it probably would have been successful
Neither speaker expresses an opinion on this. Neither Xavier nor Miranda mentions the quality of the food or really anything about the restaurant other than its lack of indoor seating. Maybe there were other reasons it would have failed—we don’t know.
D
a fast-food place on 10th Street is likely to fail if it has any outdoor seating
Neither speaker expresses an opinion. For one, Miranda never discusses outdoor seating as a poor choice. She just believes it was unwise to provide no indoor seating. Maybe a restaurant with both options would have been fine.
E
the new fast-food place on 10th Street was a risky venture
Xavier and Miranda both agree with this. Xavier says that the restaurant’s failure was unsurprising, and Miranda says that the bank should have seen that the restaurant was likely to fail. When failure is likely, that’s equivalent to “risky.”
Summary
Increasing an electrical load on a transmission line causes the line’s temperature to increase. Too big of a load causes the line to exceed its maximum operating temperature. However, the temperature is also affected with wind speed and direction. Strong winds cool the line more than light winds, and winds blowing across a line cools the line more than winds blowing parallel to it.
Strongly Supported Conclusions
When wind speed increases, the load a transmission line can carry without exceeding maximum operating temperature also increases.
A
Electrical utility companies typically increase the electrical load on their transmission lines on days on which the wind has a strong cooling effect.
This answer is unsupported. We don’t know how electrical utility companies usually operate. We can assume this is true, but we don’t know it for a fact based on the stimulus.
B
Transmission lines that run parallel to the prevailing winds can generally carry greater electrical loads than otherwise identical lines at a right angle to the prevailing winds.
This answer is anti-supported. Based on the stimulus, the winds blowing at a right angle would cool a line more than winds blowing parallel to the line.
C
The electrical load that a transmission line can carry without reaching its maximum operating temperature increases when the wind speed increases.
This answer is strongly supported. Load capacity is correlated with the temperature of a transmission line. The more external factors like wind cool the line, the greater load capacity the line has.
D
Air temperature has less effect on the temperature of a transmission line than wind speed does.
This answer is unsupported. We don’t know how the surrounding air temperature could effect a transmission line’s temperature.
E
The maximum operating temperature of a transmission line is greater on windy days than on calm days.
This answer is unsupported. We don’t know whether the maximum operating temperature for a transmission line ever changes.
forage
Verb. 1. (of a person or animal) search widely for food or provisions.
"gulls are equipped by nature to forage for food"
source
"Surprising" Phenomenon
Mosquito-borne disease outbreaks typically increase after extended periods of wet weather, but in areas where mosquitoes breed primarily in wetland habitats, there tend to be more outbreaks after droughts.
Objective
The right answer will be a hypothesis that describes a key difference between areas where mosquitoes breed primarily in wetland habitats and areas where mosquitoes breed primarily in other types of environments. That difference must explain why droughts create improved conditions for mosquito-borne disease in areas where breeding occurs in wetland habitats. This difference might relate to humans’ susceptibility to disease, mosquitoes’ disease carriage abilities, or mosquito birthrates under drought conditions in these areas.
A
The use of insecticides is typically prohibited in wetland habitats.
This has nothing to do with droughts or wet periods—presumably, insecticides are prohibited regardless of weather conditions, so (A) doesn’t help explain the increased disease outbreaks that follow droughts in wetland habitats.
B
Human populations tend to be sparse in areas near wetland habitats.
This has nothing to do with droughts or wet periods, so it doesn’t help explain the increased disease outbreaks that follow droughts in wetland habitats.
C
Wetland habitats contain numerous aquatic insects that prey on mosquito larvae.
If wetland habitats contain aquatic insects that eat mosquito larvae, it makes sense that periods of drought lead to more cases of mosquito-borne disease. These aquatic predators die or are weakend during droughts, allowing more larvae to hatch and grow into diseased mosquitoes.
D
Wetland habitats host a wider variety of mosquito species than do other areas where mosquitoes breed.
This has nothing to do with droughts or wet periods, so it doesn’t help explain the increased disease outbreaks that follow droughts in wetland habitats.
E
Periods of drought in wetland habitats create conditions conducive to the emergence of new plant growth.
We have no information about how new plant growth might or might not impact incidences of mosquito-borne disease, so this answer choice doesn’t help resolve the discrepancy at hand.