Q6 - For democracy to survive

[nandy_millette]

I got this question wrong, I chose E. Can someone explain this question for me please.

[sumukh09]

For inference questions my approach is to determine exactly what it is that I know given the information in the stimulus. When we're asked to infer something, the correct answer will be provable based on the statements in the stimulus; usually connecting statements in the stimulus will allow us to derive a logical truth (inference).

So for this question let's figure out what we know:

1. health care costs are up because of high-tech medicine
2. advances in cataract surgery help explain the high costs
3. cataract surgery restores vision dramatically and is less expensive
4. number of cataract operations have gone up
5. total amount spent on cataract surgery has gone

Notice I've omitted some parts of the stimulus because they don't play a role in the correct answer choice. Although in other questions every part of the stimulus might be relevant.

C) is correct because it matches the information the stimulus - it's less expensive to perform the surgery hence the decrease in cost per operation and we know cataract surgery has increased because a) less expensive b) restores vision dramatically

So we can infer that because health care costs have risen, it must be because the total amount spent on cataract surgery offsets the decrease in cost per operation.

To review,

Health care costs are UP ie) there's a positive differential between the amount spent on health care and the costs of health care. Also, advances in cataract surgery is the reason why health care costs are up; and if more people are electing to have the surgery performed, and it is less expensive now than it was 10 years ago, then health care costs have gone up because more is spent on surgery than the reduction in cost of performing that surgery.

[christine.defenbaugh]

Thanks for posting, nandy_millette!

Your thread title says "Q6", but it also starts with "For democracy to survive", which is the beginning of Q11. Which did you mean to post about? Let me know, and if it was indeed Q11, I'll alter the title of the thread!

Question 11 is also an inference question, and sumukh09's opening paragraph is completely on target! Inference questions require that we sort the information in the stimulus, and look for an answer that is completely supportable by that information.

The first two sentences give us information what democracy needs in order to survive. We could turn these two into conditional statements:

If democracy survive --> average citizen can develop policy opinions
If average citizen can develop policy opinions --> opinions on many scientific subjects

So, for democracy to survive, the average citizen needs to be able to develop informed opinions on many scientific subjects. It's important to realize at this point that this is what is necessary for a democracy to survive - there's no indication that this would be sufficient for a democracy to survive!

The last sentence gives us a sliding relationship:

As science knowledge goes up :: average citizen ability to make those important policy decisions goes down.

Only (B) makes the supported connection. The survival of democracy is threatened by the advance of scientific knowledge because, as the sliding relationship indicates, that advance reduces the ability of the average citizen to develop informed opinions on policy issues. And since democracy needs that in order to survive, once we reach the point where the average citizen cannot develop those policy opinions, democracy will die!

(E) makes two fatal errors. First, citizens developing informed opinions is something necessary for democracy, but that doesn't mean it is sufficient. Additionally, the stimulus was focused on whether or not the average citizen could develop those informed opinions, not just "at least some citizens."

Let's take a brief tour of the remaining incorrect answers:
(A) duty? Nothing in the stimulus gives us any support for duty!
(C) duty? Nothing in the stimulus gives us any support for duty!
(D) This answer might be tempting if you misunderstood the sliding relationship. We have no information about what makes some democracies more or less effective than others. We only know that there's a thing democracy needs (average citizens with informed opinions), and without it, democracy won't survive.

Please let me know if this completely answered your question, and if you meant to post about Question 6 or Question 11!

[OwomanJ784]

The cataract isn't that much of the problem now. Could be dealt with by using good eye-drops as soon as you heard the first bell. Can-c eye drops will do.