The role of the word "selectively" in passage B (line 42) is most closely related to the role of which one of the fol...

shunhe on July 9, 2020

Hi @jingjingxiao11111@gmail.com,

Thanks for the question! So we’re asked for a word in passage A that’s used like the word “selectively” in passage B in line 42. So we should go to line 42 and read a couple of lines around to get a sense of the full context in which “selectively” is being used.

Doing that, we see that officials are planning to selectively cut water to a few residences with outstanding bills. In other words, they’re going to decide some people to cut off water to and do it, based on their own judgment. And so we need something that reflects the word “selectively” in the first passage.

In passage A, we can now look at line 23 at the word “discretionary.” We’re told here that allowing discretionary non enforcement won’t determine the principle by which the law enforcement agency will select its cases. And what’s discretionary nonenforcement? That occurs, as seen in the lines above, when basically people can choose not to enforce laws. And so since the idea of choosing (via one’s “discretion”) and selecting are similar, these two words are used in a similar manner, and the answer to this is (D).

Hope this helps! Feel free to ask any other questions that you might have.

lklop on November 29, 2020

Could you explain why it isn't B?

jingjingxiao11111@gmail.com on November 30, 2020

Hi I am not an instructor but I believe that choice B capricious is incorrect because capricious by definition means inconstant, changeable, variable, or unstable.
Our instructor has pointed out above that "selective" involves using one's judgment to decide on something. Since the law enforcement agency will select its case via's his own discretions to decide whether a law is enforced or not and not by capricious or changeable means of randomly selecting whether a law is enforced or not, capricious does not match the role of "selective" in the passage's context.

I hope I explained it correctly. Please feel free to correct me. Thank you.