Council member: The profits of downtown businesses will increase if more consumers live in the downtown area, and a ...

Victoria on August 29, 2019

Hi @whlocke,

This is a "Must Be True" question. We are looking for the answer choice which, based on the information in the passage, must be true. This does not necessarily mean that all information in the passage will be encompassed by the correct answer choice; rather, the correct answer choice is the one that must be true based on the information we are provided with.

So, what do we know from the passage?

If more consumers live downtown, the profits of downtown businesses will increase.

MCLD - > PI
Not PI - > Not MCLD

If the cost of living downtown decreases, the number of consumers living there will increase.

CLD - > MCLD
Not MCLD - > Not CLD

We also know that "the profits of downtown businesses will not increase unless downtown traffic congestion decreases."

PI - > DTD
Not DTD - > Not PI

Using the transitive property, we can therefore conclude:

CLD - > MCLD - > PI - > DTD
Not DTD - > Not PI - > Not MCLD - > Not CLD

The correct answer will be a direct restatement of some portion of either of these chains.

Answer choice A is incorrect because it is just a reversal of the first chain.

Answer choice C is incorrect because it is not true. We know that if the cost of living downtown decreases, there will be a decrease in downtown traffic congestion.

Answer choice D is incorrect because it is just a reversal of the first chain.

Answer choice E is incorrect because it is just a reversal of the first chain.

This leaves us with answer choice B which we can see is a direct restatement of the first chain.

CLD - > MCLD - > PI

Therefore, CLD - > PI

Hope this is helpful! Please let us know if you have any further questions.