PrepTest 73, Logical Reasoning 1, Question 24
Transcript
Question 24, when a question asks you to explain an apparent conflict, then you're dealing with a paradox question. In a paradox question, you've got a scenario where two things don't seem to make sense, they don't match up. You're gonna be looking for an answer choice that will explain away the weirdness.
It'll make it so that the two things that seem like they're at odds aren't at odds anymore. And here, the paradox comes in the responses of the concertgoers to a survey. So on the one hand, pretty much all of them were upset with the local concert hall, and a lot of them wanted better seats and better acoustics, things which can't feasibly be added to the concert hall.
So they have an unsatisfactory concert hall. But on the other hand, most of them are against the idea of tearing down the concert hall and building it with one that has the things that they said they wanted, the wider seats and the better acoustics. So the correct answer is going to make sense with this. It'll explain how it could be that both things are true.
They don't like the current concert hall, they want better things out of it. Those things can't come from that hall, and yet they don't want to replace it with something else. So answer choice A, this answer establishes that the people who ran the survey are in favor of replacing the existing concert hall, and the people who are answering the survey knew this.
Just finding out that they were aware of some bias isn't really enough to tell us how they would react to that bias. Sure, it's possible that they told the people in the survey what they wanted to hear. It's possible that they knew what they wanted to hear and decided, well, I'm not gonna say that.
We don't know what type of people we're dealing with. We don't know what their response to this bias would be. So this won't help explain away the discrepancy. Answer choice B, well, it's about most of the people who live nearby. But the survey is of people who are concertgoers. I don't know if the people who go to concerts live nearby or not.
So the thoughts of the people who live nearby aren't really gonna help us understand the concertgoers' thoughts. Answer choice C, that's another group that we don't know about, this time, the city's construction industry. So finding out that it's good for them, I don't know how concertgoers would feel about that.
Maybe they're snobs who don't like construction workers, maybe they are construction workers. I can't say anything there. Answer choice D, on the other hand, there was a well-publicized plan, so the city concertgoers knew about it. It's being considered by the city government, that would convert the existing concert hall into a public auditorium and build a new concert hall nearby.
So this answer choice provides us a way out. They don't have to tear down the current concert hall and get what they want. They could build a new concert hall nearby and keep the old one. That's a win-win. So if they're aware of this, then that could explain their responses. It's not paradoxical.
They just wanna do something else other than what they were asked, so D is our answer. What's wrong with E? Well E makes it harder to understand, because E says if they could get a new concert hall, they could get some popular singers and musicians to come in, people who currently don't come in.
Surely concertgoers want to see popular musicians and singers. So it makes it harder to understand why it is they're opposing a new hall. The new hall would get them something that they want. So answer choice D was our answer.
Read full transcriptIt'll make it so that the two things that seem like they're at odds aren't at odds anymore. And here, the paradox comes in the responses of the concertgoers to a survey. So on the one hand, pretty much all of them were upset with the local concert hall, and a lot of them wanted better seats and better acoustics, things which can't feasibly be added to the concert hall.
So they have an unsatisfactory concert hall. But on the other hand, most of them are against the idea of tearing down the concert hall and building it with one that has the things that they said they wanted, the wider seats and the better acoustics. So the correct answer is going to make sense with this. It'll explain how it could be that both things are true.
They don't like the current concert hall, they want better things out of it. Those things can't come from that hall, and yet they don't want to replace it with something else. So answer choice A, this answer establishes that the people who ran the survey are in favor of replacing the existing concert hall, and the people who are answering the survey knew this.
Just finding out that they were aware of some bias isn't really enough to tell us how they would react to that bias. Sure, it's possible that they told the people in the survey what they wanted to hear. It's possible that they knew what they wanted to hear and decided, well, I'm not gonna say that.
We don't know what type of people we're dealing with. We don't know what their response to this bias would be. So this won't help explain away the discrepancy. Answer choice B, well, it's about most of the people who live nearby. But the survey is of people who are concertgoers. I don't know if the people who go to concerts live nearby or not.
So the thoughts of the people who live nearby aren't really gonna help us understand the concertgoers' thoughts. Answer choice C, that's another group that we don't know about, this time, the city's construction industry. So finding out that it's good for them, I don't know how concertgoers would feel about that.
Maybe they're snobs who don't like construction workers, maybe they are construction workers. I can't say anything there. Answer choice D, on the other hand, there was a well-publicized plan, so the city concertgoers knew about it. It's being considered by the city government, that would convert the existing concert hall into a public auditorium and build a new concert hall nearby.
So this answer choice provides us a way out. They don't have to tear down the current concert hall and get what they want. They could build a new concert hall nearby and keep the old one. That's a win-win. So if they're aware of this, then that could explain their responses. It's not paradoxical.
They just wanna do something else other than what they were asked, so D is our answer. What's wrong with E? Well E makes it harder to understand, because E says if they could get a new concert hall, they could get some popular singers and musicians to come in, people who currently don't come in.
Surely concertgoers want to see popular musicians and singers. So it makes it harder to understand why it is they're opposing a new hall. The new hall would get them something that they want. So answer choice D was our answer.
