The subway system in New City has recently been running a severe budget deficit. Analysts have concluded that, to avoid a crisis, subway revenues must increase by 50% from the current level, beginning with the coming quarter. Subway riders are currently charged a flat fare per ride; the chairperson of New City's transit authority has concluded that a 50% increase in this fare, effective at the beginning of the coming quarter, will be sufficient to avert any crisis.
Each of the following, if true, calls into question the chairperson's conclusion EXCEPT
Answer Choice is: New City's economy is adding many more jobs in suburban areas, which are inaccessible by subway, than in the urban areas that the subway system serves.
Explanation given:
(D) CORRECT. The greater rate of job growth in areas outside the reach of the subway does not, by itself, contain or imply any basis for a negative effect on subway revenues. In particular, there is no reason to assume that the number of workers who ride the subway will decrease. In fact, the wording of this choice suggests that New City is actually adding jobs in areas served by the subway, albeit more slowly than in the suburbs; thus, if anything, the subway's ridership is more likely to increase (however slowly) than to decrease. The chairperson's argument requires only that the ridership not decrease, so this choice does not weaken that argument.
"the wording of this choice suggests that New City is actually adding jobs in areas served by the subway, albeit more slowly than in the suburbs ;thus, if anything, the subway's ridership is more likely to increase (however slowly) than to decrease." : I could not get this from the answer choice suggested.
Can you please explain in detail.
GMAT Forum
2 postsPage 1 of 1
- MamtaK378
- Students
- Posts: 3
- Joined: Fri Jun 10, 2016 2:17 pm
- Sage Pearce-Higgins
- Forum Guests
- Posts: 1336
- Joined: Thu Apr 03, 2014 4:04 am
Re: Subway Fares in New City
This is an "EXCEPT" problem, which means that we need to look at the answer choices and think "I'm looking for 4 answers that would WEAKEN the chairperson's argument and one answer that doesn't". Maybe that answer will be irrelevant, maybe it will actually strengthen the argument. For this reason, it's best to do this problem by elimination, analysing each of the answers individually and seeing whether it weakens the conclusion.
Answer choice D is what I call the "many steps" trap. A GMAT-taker might think: "if jobs are growing in areas outside the subways range, then people might compare the cost of the bus with the subway, then they might move jobs to those areas and then the subway revenues might not increase as planned". It's kind of tenuous to think this, as it relies on lots of assumptions.
However, the comment in the explanation that "the wording of this choice suggests that New City is actually adding jobs in areas served by the subway, albeit more slowly than in the suburbs; thus, if anything, the subway's ridership is more likely to increase (however slowly) than to decrease" is just to counter this possible line of reasoning. So what if there are some new jobs outside the subway's range. There's no suggestion that jobs within the subway's range are decreasing or that people are moving their work to avoid using the subway. Much more likely is that they transfer to using the bus, which is covered by answer B.
Answer choice D is what I call the "many steps" trap. A GMAT-taker might think: "if jobs are growing in areas outside the subways range, then people might compare the cost of the bus with the subway, then they might move jobs to those areas and then the subway revenues might not increase as planned". It's kind of tenuous to think this, as it relies on lots of assumptions.
However, the comment in the explanation that "the wording of this choice suggests that New City is actually adding jobs in areas served by the subway, albeit more slowly than in the suburbs; thus, if anything, the subway's ridership is more likely to increase (however slowly) than to decrease" is just to counter this possible line of reasoning. So what if there are some new jobs outside the subway's range. There's no suggestion that jobs within the subway's range are decreasing or that people are moving their work to avoid using the subway. Much more likely is that they transfer to using the bus, which is covered by answer B.
2 posts Page 1 of 1