Self-study
During 1991 the number of people in the town of Bayburg who received municipal food assistance doubled, even though the number of people in Bayburg whose incomes were low enough to qualify for such assistance remained unchanged.
Surprising Phenomenon
The stimulus points out two facts that seem like a paradox. First, in 1991, the number of people in Bayburg who received municipal food assistance doubled. Second, the number of people in Bayburg whose income qualified them for such assistance did not change.
Potential Resolutions
For this Resolve, Reconcile, Explain question, we'll be looking for additional information that explains how the facts in the stimulus can be true. How could the number of people receiving assistance double in one year, while the number of people who qualified for that assistance based on income didn't change? For this type of question, it probably makes sense to spend more time on the answer choices, but we can at least come up with some general possibilities. For example, if income isn't the only way to qualify for food assistance — if there are other ways to qualify, maybe new categories which were added that year — then that could explain how the total number of people receiving assistance doubled even while the subgroup of people who qualified based on income stayed the same.
3.
Which one of the following, ██ █████ ████ █████ ██ ███████ ███ ████████ ███████████ ██ ███ ███████████ ██████
a
In 1990 the ███████ ████ ███████ ███████ ███████ ██ ███ ██ █████ ███ ███████████ ████████████ ███ ███ ████ ██████████ ███████ ███ ██████████ ███████ ███ ██ ██████ █████
Irrelevant. We're interested in what happened in 1991, and it's not clear that any changes to food assistance eligibility had to have been approved the year before. Even if they did, this tells us that no such changes happened in 1990. So this doesn't do anything to explain the phenomenon in the stimulus.
b
In 1990 the ███████ ██████ ███████ ██████████ █████████ ███ ██████ ██ ██████ ██ ███████ ███ █████ ██ ████████ ███ ███ ████ ██████████ ███████ ███ ████ ████████ ███ ███████ ████ ███████ ██ ███ █████ ██████ ██ ██████████ ██████ ██ ██ ███████
This doesn't help. This tells us that the Bayburg Town Council might have had a more accurate sense of the total amount of food assistance that needed to be provided. But that doesn't help explain how the total number of people receiving assistance doubled while the number of people qualified for assistance based on income remained unchanged.
c
During 1991 many █████████ ██ █ ██████ ████ ████ █████ ████ ███ █████ ██ ███████ ██ ██████ ██ █████
This doesn't help. This might explain one "side" of the tension in the stimulus: why there were more people who received food assistance, since more people moved into Bayburg. But this answer choice doesn't explain the other side of the tension: how the number of people in Bayburg with incomes low enough to qualify for food assistance didn't change. If the new people moving into Bayburg to find work also qualified for food assistance, it seems likely that they would have qualified based on their income, and so also increased the number of people below the relevant income threshold. So (C) doesn't resolve the tension in the stimulus.
d
During 1991 the ██████ ██ ██████████ ███ ████ ██████████ ██ ███████ ███ ████ ████████ ██ ███ █████ ████ █████ ███████ ████ █████ ███ ███████ █████████ █████ ███ █████████████ ███ ████ ██ ██ ███ ████ ██ █████
This doesn't help. This tells us that the number of people who applied for aid and were rejected based on their income being too high also didn't change. But knowing that fact doesn't help us resolve the tension in the stimulus.
e
During 1991 Bayburg’s ███████ ██ ████ ██████████ ███ ██████████ ███████ ██████████ ██████ ███ ████ ████████ ███ ██████████ █████ █████ ██████████ ████████ ███ █████ ████ █████ ██ ██████████
This helps resolve the tension. This answer choice suggests that even though the number of people who were technically qualified for food assistance based on their income didn't change, not all of them were previously receiving food assistance, because they weren't aware that they would be eligible. (E) therefore explains how even though the total number of people qualified for food assistance didn't change, more of them began to apply for and receive food assistance in 1991, thus causing the number of people actually receiving food assistance to increase.