The most successful economies have been, and will continue to be, those that train as many people as possible in the ...

Darron December 28, 2019

A is incorrect because it is attempting to create a comparison of two actors (engineers and research scientists) that is not made in the passage. There is in fact no mention at all of scientists or engineers, so this answer can be safely eliminated.

B is incorrect because it is stating that Japan is not the best country against which to measure economic success. This could be true in that Japan is not the "best," but we need a must be true answer. Furthermore, this answer is actively working against the passage by undermining Japan as a metric in economics.

C is incorrect because Japan is described as having an unusually large amount of skilled labor. A narrow base would mean that few individuals are able to perform skilled labor, but the passage indicates the opposite.
Japan's successful economy depends upon an uncommonly narrow base of highly skilled labor.

D is the correct answer because it is a reiteration of one section of the passage, specifically by establishing: "The most successful economies have been, and will continue to be, those that train as many people as possible in the human skills required to research..." The passage then goes on to explain that Japan is successful in this endeavor, and that Europe is comparatively weaker. Therefor, we can infer that if Europe were to train more people in new technologies, their economy would be more successful as a result. The fear of selecting this answer based on the term "needs" is not completely unfounded generally speaking, but the logic in this answer holds with the passage.

E is incorrect because this answer is a could be true statement. Nothing in the passage weighs Europe against "other countries" only against Japan. Without more data this does not qualify as "must be true" and is therefor the incorrect answer.

Anna20 June 11, 2020

I interpreted a "narrow base" to be skilled labor - instead of being in a position where they are unskilled and do not have one narrow set of skills. How do I avoid mis-interpreting passages like this? Any advice would be appreciated. Many thanks!