Although military veterans make up a small proportion of the total population of the United States, they occupy a significantly...
GMAT Information and Ideas : (Ideas) Questions
Although military veterans make up a small proportion of the total population of the United States, they occupy a significantly higher proportion of the jobs in the civilian government. One possible explanation for this disproportionate representation is that military service familiarizes people with certain organizational structures that are also reflected in the civilian government bureaucracy, and this familiarity thus ______
Which choice most logically completes the text?
makes civilian government jobs especially appealing to military veterans.
alters the typical relationship between military service and subsequent career preferences.
encourages nonveterans applying for civilian government jobs to consider military service instead.
increases the number of civilian government jobs that require some amount of military experience to perform.
Step 1: Decode and Map the Passage
Part A: Create Passage Analysis Table
| Text from Passage | Analysis |
|---|---|
| "Although military veterans make up a small proportion of the total population of the United States," |
|
| "they occupy a significantly higher proportion of the jobs in the civilian government." |
|
| "One possible explanation for this disproportionate representation is that military service familiarizes people with certain organizational structures that are also reflected in the civilian government bureaucracy," |
|
| "and this familiarity thus ______" |
|
Step 2: Interpret the Question Precisely
This is a fill-in-the-blank question asking us to choose the best logical connector. The answer must create the right relationship between what comes before and after the blank.
Step 3: Prethink the Answer
- We have this logical chain: Military service leads to familiarity with organizational structures similar to government, and this familiarity thus leads to what?
- The right answer needs to explain how this familiarity leads to the disproportionate representation we started with. The familiarity should make veterans more likely to seek out or succeed in government jobs.
- The answer should show that familiarity creates some advantage or appeal that explains why veterans end up in government jobs at higher rates than their proportion in the population.
makes civilian government jobs especially appealing to military veterans.
- This directly completes our causal chain: familiarity makes the jobs appealing to veterans
- Explains the disproportionate representation—if these jobs are especially appealing to veterans due to familiar structures, veterans would naturally apply for and take them at higher rates
- Matches our prethinking perfectly about how familiarity leads to the statistical outcome
alters the typical relationship between military service and subsequent career preferences.
- This choice talks about altering relationships between military service and career preferences generally
- Too broad and doesn't specifically address government jobs or explain the disproportionate representation
- Doesn't complete the specific logical chain about organizational structure familiarity
encourages nonveterans applying for civilian government jobs to consider military service instead.
- This reverses the direction—we're explaining why veterans go to government jobs, not why non-veterans go to military service
- Doesn't address the familiarity with organizational structures at all
- Students might think this connects military and civilian government, but it's backwards from what we need to explain
increases the number of civilian government jobs that require some amount of military experience to perform.
- This suggests familiarity somehow creates more jobs requiring military experience
- But familiarity with structures doesn't create new job requirements—it affects individual preferences
- Doesn't explain why veterans take existing jobs at disproportionate rates