Passage Summary: There were only two choices for a job; one was rejected, so the other one must be the winner.

Conclusion: Phoenix Contracting will almost certainly be awarded the highway contract.

Reasoning: There are only two viable candidates for the contract, and the government has officially decided not to hire one of them.

Analysis: The argument proceeds by a process of elimination, also known as a disjunctive syllogism. It starts by establishing a limited set of possibilities (either Phoenix or Cartwright) and then proceeds to negate one of those possibilities. To identify this method, focus on the structure: the author sets up an 'A or B' scenario, proves 'Not B,' and concludes 'Therefore A.' You should look for an answer choice that describes this narrowing of options to a single remaining candidate.