OG 2nd Ed. CR #40

[tofubeans]

Journalist: Well-known businessman Arnold Bergeron has long been popular in the state, and he has often talked about running for governor, but he has never run. However, we have just learned that Bergeron has fulfilled the financial disclosure requirement for candidacy by submitting a detailed list of his current financial holdings to the election commission. So, it is very likely that Bergeron will be a candidate for governor this year.

The answer to which of the following questions would be most useful in evaulating the journalist's argument?

a) Has anybody else who has fulfilled the financial disclosure requirement for the upcoming election reported greater financial holdings than Bergeron?

b) Is submitting a list of holdings the only way to fulfill the election commission's financial disclosure requirements?

c) Did the information recently obtained by the journalist come directly from the election commission?

d) Have Bergerson's financial holdings increased in value in recent years?

e) Had Bergeron also fulfilled the financial disclosure requirements for candidacy before any previous gubernatorial elections?

I picked B but the correct answer is E

Could someone explain why B is wrong? Thanks!

[Bill@VeritasPrep]

a) The amount of financial holdings is irrelevant to the disclosure requirements and running for office

b) Does it matter if there are possible ways to fulfill the requirement? Not particularly, and we don't know how it would affect the likelihood of Bergeron running for governor.

c) The source is irrelevant.

d) Change in value is irrelevant.

e) If he has done this before, then we can't conclude that he is likely to run. If he hasn't done this before, then it is safe to say he is likely to run. Either way, we can judge the conclusion.



Questions like these are always tricky. I ask myself what the two possible outcomes are and how they affect the conclusion.

[bubbliiiiiiii]

J
I picked B but the correct answer is E

As I read the question, I paraphrased the answer which was on similar lines to B and after reading B, I immediately went for it. But, before locking the answer, I re-read the option to find out that this cannot be the answer because, the argument clearly mentions that the candidate has already successfully filed his papers. Option B questions the fulfillment of financial disclosure agreement. Thus, incorrect.

My next choice was option C. But once I read E, I picked it.

C, in my understanding, could be an answer to evaluate the reliability of the source from where journalist has learnt that the candidate has filed his papers.

Whereas, E, in my opinion tries to sneak into the candidate's past and learn from it that whether filing the papers guarantees that Bergeron will be a candidate for governor this year. If he has already applied in the past and managed either to be or not to be a candidate, then in either cases we cannot guarantee the outcome of the current event.

Hope it helps.

[Birottam Dutta]

The answer is definitely E. none of the other answers provide any useful information.