Logic Breakdown

Passage Summary: If the museum saves money now by not fixing things, it will have to fix them next year. But fixing them next year is so expensive that it will definitely break next year's budget.

Conclusion: Staying within this year's budget will result in exceeding next year's budget.

Reasoning: Renovating next year is guaranteed to exceed the budget, and the museum is forced to renovate next year if it skips renovations this year.

Analysis: This is a logic puzzle about budget timing. The author claims that staying in budget now forces a budget failure later because it delays necessary renovations. For this to be a 'guaranteed' conclusion, we must assume that the only way to stay within this year's budget is by skipping those renovations. Look for an answer that connects 'staying in budget this year' directly to 'not renovating this year,' effectively closing the loop on the conditional chain.

Passage Stimulus

Passage Redacted

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13.

The argument's conclusion can be properly inferred if which one of the following is assumed?

Correct Answer
D
Assuming that renovating this year would exceed this year’s budget yields, by contrapositive, that staying within this year’s budget means not renovating this year. That completes the chain to required renovation next year and then to exceeding next year’s budget, making the conclusion valid.
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