In the recent election, a

Answer choices

1. A

   Out of Scope: throughout their careers3% picked this

   Throughout their respective political careers, Adler has been more committed to taking measures to protect the country’s environment

   We can't possibly support any comparison about Adler and Burke that covers both of their respective political careers. We don't know anything about Adler's political career. And we know nothing about Burke's environmental policy positions in the past.

   3%
2. B

   Too Specific: natural resources depleted1% picked this

   Voters realized that their country’s natural resources are rapidly

   We could support something more broad like, "Voters were concerned about the health of their environment", since they seem to have voted on that basis. But maybe they're concerned with air pollution, or contaminated water, or global warming. We don't know that they're worried their local resources are being depleted.

   1%
3. C

   Correct90% picked this

   The concern of the country’s voters for the environment played an important role

   Why this is right

   This aligns with our prediction. It reflects what you get by Reconciling the Pivot idea at the end with what came before. The 2nd and 3rd sentences tell us good things about Burke. Yet we know he lost the election. Why? The last sentence allows us to make a guess that it was based on his environmental policy. Some of us may feel nervous picking a speculative causal explanation like this, but Most Supported is not afraid to go there. There are numerous examples of Most Supported questions whose correct answer are essentially Solving the Causal Mystery. Frequently, it's the idea that "one Difference explains another Difference". For example if we said, "Ben, for the first time on this last practice test, chewed gum while he took it. He got his highest score ever", do we know that chewing gum helped his score? No. But it's supportable that chewing gum helped.

   Skill tested: Most Supported · how this choice captures the argument's function is the move to repeat next time.

   90%
4. D

   Unsupported Comparison3% picked this

   Offering effective strategies for dealing with a country’s problems is more important in winning an election than having a long

   Burke had both effective strategies and a long record of successful service, and he lost the election. So we have no way of comparing which of those two things is more important in winning an election.

   3%
5. E

   Too Strong: every3% picked this

   In every respect other than environmental policy, Burke would have served the country better

   There definitely is support for the idea that in some or maybe even most other respects besides environmental, Burke could have been the better choice. But we can't support the idea that "environmental policy was the one and only area in which Burke was worse than Adler".

   3%