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Inference Question

by magizhan » Tue Apr 20, 2010 9:42 am
U.S. officials complain that the country's trade
deficit with Japan is due to the fact that Japan's
markets are not open enough to imports and
investment. Japanese officials reply that the
United States should concentrate on improving
its school systems and investing more money in
scientific research and worker training.

It can be inferred from the statements above
that the Japanese officials most probably hold
which of the following opinions?

(A)The United States should open its own
markets to more imports and investment.

(B)The trade deficit between the United
States and Japan is more the result of
poor American industrial performance than
Japan's import restrictions.

(C)The trade deficit between the United
States and Japan is a result of Japan's
closed markets.

(D)U.S. school systems foster a mistrust of
Japan that prevents U.S. businesspeople
from negotiating intelligently with Japan.

(E)Better education and worker training can
help shrink the trade imbalance, but
should not be counted on to close the gap
entirely
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by sk818020 » Tue Apr 20, 2010 10:00 am
The passage indicates that U.S. officials think the US deficit exits because Japan markets aren't open enough to imports and investment. Japanese officials respond to this by saying that the U.S. should invest in itself (schools, research, training) instead of worrying about investing in Japan. Thus, their opinion would most likely link the U.S. investing in itself and its impact on the deficit.

E does this. The rest of the answers are either irrelavent or out of scope.

(A)The United States should open its own
markets to more imports and investment.
- The passage does not indicate this. It says the Japanese officials think that America should invest in itself, not open it's markets.

(B)The trade deficit between the United
States and Japan is more the result of
poor American industrial performance than
Japan’s import restrictions.
- No where in the passage does it indicate that either of the countries have poor industrial performance. You could not deduce this from the passage.

(C)The trade deficit between the United
States and Japan is a result of Japan’s
closed markets.
- The passage states that this is what the U.S. officials think, not the Japanese officials.

(D)U.S. school systems foster a mistrust of
Japan that prevents U.S. businesspeople
from negotiating intelligently with Japan.
- No part of the passage indicated that this. The passage says that the Japanese officials think that America should invest in its schools, but that does not say anything about what the school system fosters.

(E)Better education and worker training can
help shrink the trade imbalance, but
should not be counted on to close the gap
entirely
-This is the correct answer as it links the ideas of the US investing in itself and the possible impact it could have on the deficit.
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by magizhan » Tue Apr 20, 2010 10:07 am
I too narrowed down to D and E. But the OA is B. Any Explanations would be highly helpful.
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by mbadreamz » Tue Apr 20, 2010 10:10 am
Good one. B looks tempting, but I am going with E too.

Better education and worker training can
help shrink the trade imbalance, but
should not be counted on to close the gap
entirely

I still couldn't figure out how we can infer the second part of the sentence (but
should not be counted on to close the gap
entirely) from the argument.
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by mbadreamz » Tue Apr 20, 2010 10:13 am
magizhan wrote:I too narrowed down to D and E. But the OA is B. Any Explanations would be highly helpful.
None of the answer choices look convincing, but I think we are inferring too much from B
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by magizhan » Tue Apr 20, 2010 10:19 am
This is what Kaplan Verbal Explanation says.

The Conclusion:We need to infer a conclusion from
the evidence provided.

The Evidence:The Japanese respond to a claim that
their closed markets are responsible for the trade
deficit with the claim that the U.S.needs to improve
schools and to spend more money on research and
training.

Inferably,the Japanese think that changes the US
should make would help shrink the deficit.So they
likely believe the deficit exists because the US's
industrial performance-a function of things like
education,research,and training-is poor.

The Japanese don't address U.S.markets (A);they
focus on U.S.industrial performance.It is the US
officials'opinion (C),that the deficit results from
Japanese protectionism.The Japanese don't say what
specifically is wrong with US schools (D),just that
they need improvement.Neither have they implied
(E) that something in addition to improving
industrial performance is necessary.

However the explanations aren't convincing for both E and B. Do any of you find them convincing?
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by reply2spg » Tue Apr 20, 2010 5:52 pm
With all the respect and with no offense but with the experience I think that Kaplan always assumes things...and it is in its own world. Here B says

(B)The trade deficit between the United States and Japan is more the result of poor American industrial performance than Japan's import restrictions.

And Japaneese official says

Japanese officials reply that the United States should concentrate on improving its school systems and investing more money in scientific research and worker training

I can only infer from this that Kaplan assumes that American industrial performance is nothing but the American school system and more money investment in scientific research and worker training

I am not convinced with OA, I think OA should be E.

Testluv, could you please help us to understand this Question?
magizhan wrote:This is what Kaplan Verbal Explanation says.

The Conclusion:We need to infer a conclusion from
the evidence provided.

The Evidence:The Japanese respond to a claim that
their closed markets are responsible for the trade
deficit with the claim that the U.S.needs to improve
schools and to spend more money on research and
training.

Inferably,the Japanese think that changes the US
should make would help shrink the deficit.So they
likely believe the deficit exists because the US's
industrial performance-a function of things like
education,research,and training-is poor.

The Japanese don't address U.S.markets (A);they
focus on U.S.industrial performance.It is the US
officials'opinion (C),that the deficit results from
Japanese protectionism.The Japanese don't say what
specifically is wrong with US schools (D),just that
they need improvement.Neither have they implied
(E) that something in addition to improving
industrial performance is necessary.

However the explanations aren't convincing for both E and B. Do any of you find them convincing?
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by bichoo » Wed Apr 21, 2010 8:18 am
This one is tricky an I had originally guessed B. I was temped on E but the last part of the sentence "but
should not be counted on to close the gap entirely" was irrelevant and OOS, I eliminated it quickly. I know in B that the author assumes that better performance is achieved from better school systems, but this is the only answer that best fits and is within the scope of the argument
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