ParadoxDiff: Easy

Logic Breakdown

Passage Summary: Researchers looked at history students and found a weird pattern: the ones with jobs and no social lives did great, while the ones with no jobs and lots of parties did poorly, even though both groups had early morning classes.

Reasoning: The study found that the best-performing students had jobs and limited social lives, while the worst-performing students had no jobs and active social lives, despite both groups having early classes.

Analysis: The paradox here is that students with less free time (those working jobs) are outperforming those with more free time (those without jobs). To resolve this, we need a factor that explains why having a job or a limited social life is beneficial, or why having too much free time is detrimental. Perhaps the students with jobs are forced to develop better time-management skills, or perhaps the 'active social life' of the non-working group involves staying up late, making those early morning classes a struggle. Look for an answer that provides a benefit to the busy group or a specific disadvantage to the social group.

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1.

Which one of the following, if true, most helps to explain the educators' findings?

Correct Answer
A
A ties the pattern together: students with jobs made up for any study time lost to work, but students did not make up for study time lost to socializing. Since both groups had morning classes, the decisive factor becomes whether lost time is compensated. This cleanly explains why those with jobs and limited social lives outperform those with no jobs but active social lives.
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