Question #a15b3219 - SAT Suite Question Bank

Modded SAT Question Bank by Abdullah Mallik

In the United States, firms often seek incentives from municipal governments to expand to those municipalities. A team of political scientists hypothesized that municipalities are much more likely to respond to firms and offer incentives if expansions can be announced in time to benefit local elected officials than if they can’t. The team contacted officials in thousands of municipalities, inquiring about incentives for a firm looking to expand and indicating that the firm would announce its expansion on a date either just before or just after the next election.

Which choice best describes data from the graph that weaken the team’s hypothesis?

A large majority of the municipalities that received an inquiry mentioning plans for an announcement before the next election didn’t respond to the inquiry.
The proportion of municipalities that responded to the inquiry or offered incentives didn’t substantially differ across the announcement timing conditions.
Only around half the municipalities that responded to inquiries mentioning plans for an announcement before the next election offered incentives.
Of the municipalities that received an inquiry mentioning plans for an announcement date after the next election, more than 1,200 didn’t respond and only around 100 offered incentives.

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Correct Answer: B

Rationale

Choice B is the best answer. The lighter bars show what happened when the announcement was to come before the election, and the darker bars show what happened when the announcement was to come after the election. For all three of the outcomes, the light and dark bars are virtually the same, demonstrating that the announcement timing didn’t actually make a difference.

Choice A is incorrect. This accurately describes some data from the graph, but it doesn’t weaken the hypothesis. It doesn’t include the “announcement after election” data for comparison. Choice C is incorrect. This accurately describes some data from the graph, but it doesn’t weaken the hypothesis. It doesn’t include the “announcement after election” data for comparison. Choice D is incorrect. This accurately describes some data from the graph, but it doesn’t weaken the hypothesis. It doesn’t include the “announcement before election” data for comparison.

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