Mayor: Periodically an ice cream company will hold a free ice cream day as a promotion. Showing up may not cost you a...

shunhe on August 10, 2020

Hi @ankita96,

Thanks for the question! So with these kinds of questions, it’s good to first break down the argument and find out what the conclusion is, and how the statements are supporting it (if they are). So let’s walk through the stimulus. We’re told that sometimes, ice cream companies have free ice cream days, but there’s super long lines and so it costs you time. Then, the mayor applies this to rush hour. Basically, people during rush hour complain about the congestion, so we should charge people for using roads during rush hour. Then less people will be on the roads.

So what’s the conclusion here? It’s that we should charge people for using the roads during rush hour. And what role does the “when something valuable costs no money you get overconsumption and long lines” statement play? Well, it’s part of the reason the mayor thinks we should charge for the lines! Because valuable things get over consumed when they’re free, we should charge for the roads during rush hour! So the statement is a premise that helps support the conclusion, and is also a general claim (since it’s about free valuable things in general). And that’s what supports (D).

(C) is wrong because it is offered as evidence for the conclusion, since it’s part of the reasoning behind charging for the roads.

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