PrepTest 141, Section 2, 24. A survey of the city’s concertgoers…

How will the right answer fit in terms of support and conclusion?

Only the right answer will support the conclusion that the apparent conflict can be explained.

Highlight the main conclusion in the passage, if there is one:

There is no conclusion in the passage. It’s all facts, nothing supports anything else.

[BACKGROUND]. [BACKGROUND]. [BACKGROUND].

Yup, all those facts just give us the context. You can think of the argument starting after the passage ends: “But the apparent conflict can be explained, because [RIGHT ANSWER].” Are you smelling what I’m stepping in?

Map the wording of the answers to the wording of the passage:

(A) …the survey was sponsored by a group that advocates replacing the existing concert hall.

So what? This new group isn’t referenced in the passage, so it needs to be plain common sense how that’s relevant or else this is wrong. You would need to add in your own reasoning to connect the dots here for sure, so this is out.

(B) Most people who live in the vicinity of the existing concert hall…

Stop. This group of people isn’t mentioned in the passage. Are they the same folks from the survey? Some of them? None of them? We have no way of knowing, so info about these peeps doesn’t help explain the results of the survey.

(C) The city’s construction industry will receive more economic benefit…

Hold the phone. Are any of the survey respondents in the construction industry? Are any of them gonna get these benefits? We have no idea. And you’re definitely not supposed to make your own assumptions. This can’t explain the survey results.

(D) A well-publicized plan…

So here’s another option for the city’s concertgoers, and the answer goes out of its way to tell us it’s “well-publicized”. Could another plan, that includes “a new concert hall”, explain why folks oppose the plan in the passage? You better believe it.

(E) Many popular singers…would begin to hold concerts there if a new concert hall were built.

Cool story. But if anything, wouldn’t that be a reason these people in the survey would be in favor of the idea even if the seats are narrow and the acoustics are shitty? This does not explain the conflict at all.

(D) is the correct answer.