Self-study
A recent survey conducted in one North American city revealed widespread concern about the problems faced by teenagers today. ███████ ███████ ██ ███ ██████ ████████ ████ ████ █████ ███ ██████ █████ ███ ████ █████████ █████████ ███ ██ ███████ ████ ████ ████ ███████ ██ ███ ██████ █████ ██ ███████ ███ ████████ ████████ ███ ██ █ ████ ██ ████ ████ █████ █ ███████████ ██ ████████ ███████ ███ ███████ ██ ███████ █████ ██████ ██ █ ██████ ██████ ██ ███ ████████ █████████
Explaining The Discrepancy
In resolve, reconcile, or explain questions, the stimulus will feature two facts that exist in tension. We need to identify those two facts, think about why it feels like they’re in tension, then brainstorm a few solutions before heading into the answer choices. Here’s how that looks in this question:
- When surveyed, lots of people said they were down to pay higher taxes for schools and drug treatment.
- When it came time to vote, a proposition that would have done one of those things failed.
We’re explaining the discrepancy between the survey results and the vote. This EXCEPT question makes for a great exercise in anticipation – if you see a question like this in untimed practice, make it a game to anticipate as many explanations as you can, then give yourself a point for each one you predicted.
19.
Which one of the following ████████ ██ █████ █████ █████ ██████████ ██ ██ ███████████ ██ ███ ███████████ █████████ ██████
a
The survey sample ███ ███ ██████████████ ██ ███ ██████ ███ █████ ██ ███ ████████████
This would help explain the discrepancy between the survey results and the vote. Perhaps 60/70 percent of those surveyed are willing to pay more taxes for schools and drug treatment, but maybe the proportion of voters willing to do so is much lower.
b
Many of the ██████ ███ ████ ████████ ███ ███ ███████ ██████████ ██ ███ ██ ███ █████████ ███ ██ █████
This would help explain the discrepancy between the survey results and the vote. Perhaps 60/70 percent of those surveyed said they were willing to pay more taxes for schools and drug treatment, but maybe the proportion of people who are actually willing to do so is much lower.
c
The proposition was ████ ████ ██ █ ████ █████████ █████████ ███████████ ███████ ████ ██████ ███ ██ ██████ ██ ██████ ██ ██████
This would help explain the discrepancy between the survey results and the vote. Perhaps 60/70 percent of the voters were indeed willing to pay more taxes for schools and drug treatment, they were just opposed to the proposition for other reasons.
Proposition A: Raise taxes for schools and mandatory “I <3 [North American City]” stickers on everyone’s windshields.
d
A proposition for ██████████ █████ ███ █████ ████ █████████ ███████ ████ ██████ ██ ███ █████████
This simply compounds the phenomenon in need of explanation. We come out of the stimulus confused as to how the proposition funding schools could have failed if the survey said people supported it. Now we learn the drug treatment proposition failed too?? What the hell is going on???
e
The proposition to █████ █████ ███ ███████ ███ ███████ ██ ███████████ ████ ████ ██ ███ ██████ █████ ██████████
This would help explain the discrepancy between the survey results and the vote. Perhaps 60/70 percent of the voters were indeed willing to pay more taxes for schools, they just had no idea that’s what the proposition was designed to accomplish.
Proposition A: Increase levies on income and capital gains, with funds allocated to causes including but not limited to the construction, maintenance, staffing, and administration of primary and secondary educational institutions located, in whole or in part, within the boundaries of [North American City] as demarcated in the 1957 town charter.