Self-study
Throughout the Popoya Islands community pressure is exerted on people who win the national lottery to share their good fortune with their neighbors. ████ ██████ ██████ ██ █████ █████ ███ ███ ███████ ████ ██████████ █████ █████████ ████████████ ███████ █████ ██████ ███ ███ ██ █████ ███████ █████████ ████████ ██ ███ ███████ ███████ ███████ ██████████ ███ █████ ████████ ███ █████ ███ ████████ ██████████ ██████ ████ ███████ █████ ████ ███████ ████ █████ ██████████
Framing The Question
This stem gives us lots of information and a very specific question to answer:
Rural lottery winners [do this]. City lottery winners [do that]. Why?
As we enter the stimulus, then, we just need to fill those brackets in and think a bit about why they’re different. Here are the brackets filled in:
Rural lottery winnersshare with their neighbors . City lottery winnersdon’t share with their neighbors .
The correct answer will point to some difference between city winners and rural winners that makes rural winners share and city winners not share. It’s a nice exercise to brainstorm some potential explanations of your own, but what matters is understanding what the explanations need to do.
It’s fine not to notice this next bit, but the notion of
2.
Which one of the following, ██ █████ ███████████ ████ ██ ██ ███████████ ██ ███ ██████████ ███████ ███ ████████ ██ ███████ ███████ ██ █████ █████ ███ █████ ██ ███████
a
Twice as many ████████ ████ ██ █████ █████ ██ ████ ██ ███ █████
Trying to figure out why “there are tons of rural folks” somehow means “rural folks tend to share more” involves a fair amount of mental gymnastics that you should be unwilling to do until you’ve read all the other answer choices.
So in practice, the reason not to pick (A) is that it isn’t obviously right at first glance. That should make you move on, see that (C) is clearly right, and never return to (A).
If you did pick (A), the lesson is more about proactively anticipating the answer than it is about (A)’s precise wording.
b
Popoyan city dwellers ████ ██ ███ ███████ ███████ ███████ ██ █ █████ ███ ████ ███ ███████ ████ ██████████ ████ ██ █████ █████████
Trying to figure out why “rural folks frequently buy only a few tickets” somehow means “rural folks tend to share more” involves a fair amount of mental gymnastics that you should be unwilling to do until you’ve read all the other answer choices.
So in practice, the reason not to pick (B) is that it isn’t obviously right at first glance. That should make you move on, see that (C) is clearly right, and never return to (B).
If you did pick (B), the lesson is more about proactively anticipating the answer than it is about (B)’s precise wording.
c
Lottery winners in █████ █████ ███ ████████ ██ ███████ ██ ██████ ███████ ██ █████ ██ ████████ ███ ████████████ ██ ███ ████ ██ ██ ███████ █████
(C) gives us an actual reason why rural winners share more than city winners. When someone in the boonies wins, EVERYBODY KNOWS! “Hey everybody, Boony Popoya just won the lottery! What’re gonna do with your winnings, Boony?!?” “Uhhhhh obviously I’m gonna share!”
When someone in the city wins, no one knows. City Popoya faces no community pressure.
d
Families in rural █████ ██ ███ ███████ ███ ███████ ██████ ██ ████████ ███████ ███ ████ ████████ ███████ ███ ██ ██████
Trying to figure out why “rural families are bigger than city families” somehow means “rural folks tend to share more with their neighbors” involves a fair amount of mental gymnastics that you should be unwilling to do until you’ve read all the other answer choices.
So in practice, the reason not to pick (D) is that it isn’t obviously right at first glance. That should make you move on, see that (C) is clearly right, and never return to (D).
If you did pick (D), the lesson is more about proactively anticipating the answer than it is about (D)’s precise wording.
e
Twice as many ███████ ███████ ███ ████ ██ █████ █████ ██ ███ ████ ██ ███ █████
Trying to figure out why “rural folks buy a lotta tickets” somehow means “rural folks tend to share more” involves a fair amount of mental gymnastics that you should be unwilling to do until you’ve read all the other answer choices.
So in practice, the reason not to pick (E) is that it isn’t obviously right at first glance. That should make you move on, see that (C) is clearly right, and never return to (E).
If you did pick (E), the lesson is more about proactively anticipating the answer than it is about (E)’s precise wording.