This year a flood devastated

Answer choices

1. A

   Out of Scope Comparison2% picked this

   People are more likely to aid people they know than they are

   Hollyville gave more aid to the flood victims than to the quake victims, but we can't relate that comparison to this answer choice's distinction of "people they know vs. strangers".

   2%
2. B

   Out of Scope: "government relief programs"2% picked this

   Those who have received aid are more likely to be in favor of government relief programs than are

   This answer starts off promisingly, but we would want to hear "Those who have received aid are more likely to give aid", not more likely to support govt. aid relief.

   2%
3. C

   Too Strong: "unrelated"8% picked this

   The amount of aid that victims of a disaster receive is unrelated to the extent to which

   We only know about 1 of the 3 events, in terms of whether or not it was publicized, so there's no way to draw any inferences about whether there's some connection between amount of aid given and publicity. For the one event we know about, there was high publicity but low aid. So it's possible that publicity and aid are inversely related: "the more a tragedy is publicized, the less likely people are to give aid" (perhaps because they assume there are already so many other people hearing about the tragedy and donating)

   8%
4. D

   Correct66% picked this

   Once a disaster has struck them, people are more likely to aid others in need than they

   Why this is right

   This reinforces the timeline. Hollyville went from giving little aid (quake) to giving more aid (flood), and what transpired in between was that Hollyville went through its own thing (tornado) and received aid from others.

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

   66%
5. E

   Unsupported Comparison22% picked this

   People are more likely to aid those who have experienced a hardship similar to one they themselves have experienced than to aid those

   The three hardships we hear about are all different: quake, tornado, flood. Hollyville went through a tornado, so according to this answer choice, they would be more likely to give aid to other people who have been through a tornado. But the facts we're dealing with is that they gave less aid to quake victims and more aid to flood victims, and there's no common sense way to argue that a flood is more similar of a hardship to a tornado than a quake is.

   22%