Budget & Trade deficits

Large national budget deficits do not cause large trade deficits. If they did, countries with the largest budget deficits would also have the largest trade deficits. In fact, when deficit figures are adjusted so that different countries are reliably comparable to each other, there is no such correlation.

IMO C

AGree with C, there is no correlation

one more C

Large national budget deficits do not cause large trade deficits. If they did, countries with the largest budget deficits would also have the largest trade deficits. In fact, when deficit figures are adjusted so that different countries are reliably comparable to each other, there is no such correlation.
If the statements above are all true, which of the following can properly be inferred on the basis of them?
(A) Countries with large national budget deficits tend to restrict foreign trade.
(B) Reliable comparisons of the deficit figures of one country with those of another are impossible.
(C) Reducing a country’s national budget deficit will not necessarily result in a lowering of any trade deficit that country may have.
(D) When countries are ordered from largest to smallest in terms of population, the smallest countries generally have the smallest budget and trade deficits.
(E) Countries with the largest trade deficits never have similarly large national budget deficits.

Hi joyseychow,

In inference questions, you should learn to avoid choices that use extreme language, and to be partial to choices that use more tentative language.

Chioce B uses the word "impossible".
Choice D talks about the "largest" and "smallest" nations.
Choice E uses the word "never".

All of this is extreme language. For that reason these choices are not likely to be correct.

In contrast, choice A says "tend to" while choice C (incidentally, the correct answer) says "not necessarily". Because these choices are using
English more tentatively, they are more likely to be correct.

I am not saying that choices that use extreme language in inference questions are automaticlly incorrect. But, in order for such a choice to be correct, the language in the passage would have to be equally as extreme, and that is fairly rare.

You can also apply this to questions that ask for "an assumption on which the argument depends". In these questions, the argument is not likely to be so bold as to depend on an extreme assumption.

IMO - C

Testluv wrote:

Large national budget deficits do not cause large trade deficits. If they did, countries with the largest budget deficits would also have the largest trade deficits. In fact, when deficit figures are adjusted so that different countries are reliably comparable to each other, there is no such correlation.
If the statements above are all true, which of the following can properly be inferred on the basis of them?
(A) Countries with large national budget deficits tend to restrict foreign trade.
(B) Reliable comparisons of the deficit figures of one country with those of another are impossible.
(C) Reducing a country’s national budget deficit will not necessarily result in a lowering of any trade deficit that country may have.
(D) When countries are ordered from largest to smallest in terms of population, the smallest countries generally have the smallest budget and trade deficits.
(E) Countries with the largest trade deficits never have similarly large national budget deficits.

Hi joyseychow,

In inference questions, you should learn to avoid choices that use extreme language, and to be partial to choices that use more tentative language.

Chioce B uses the word "impossible".
Choice D talks about the "largest" and "smallest" nations.
Choice E uses the word "never".

All of this is extreme language. For that reason these choices are not likely to be correct.

In contrast, choice A says "tend to" while choice C (incidentally, the correct answer) says "not necessarily". Because these choices are using
English more tentatively, they are more likely to be correct.

I am not saying that choices that use extreme language in inference questions are automaticlly incorrect. But, in order for such a choice to be correct, the language in the passage would have to be equally as extreme, and that is fairly rare.

You can also apply this to questions that ask for "an assumption on which the argument depends". In these questions, the argument is not likely to be so bold as to depend on an extreme assumption.

Thanks for the tip!! It makes sense