While researching a topic, a student has taken the following notes:Urban planners use different strategies to address housing shortages in...
GMAT Expression of Ideas : (Expression) Questions
While researching a topic, a student has taken the following notes:
- Urban planners use different strategies to address housing shortages in growing cities.
- Vertical development involves constructing high-rise residential buildings.
- Mixed-use towers combine residential units with commercial and office spaces.
- This maximizes land efficiency in dense urban areas.
- Horizontal expansion involves developing suburban residential communities.
- This provides larger living spaces but requires more land area.
- Cities with limited available land typically prioritize vertical development strategies.
The student wants to explain why cities with limited land choose specific development approaches. Which choice most effectively uses relevant information from the notes to accomplish this goal?
Mixed-use towers combine residential units with commercial spaces, while horizontal expansion develops suburban communities.
Because vertical development maximizes land efficiency in dense urban areas, cities with limited available land typically prioritize these strategies over horizontal expansion.
Urban planners use vertical development and horizontal expansion as different strategies to address housing shortages.
Horizontal expansion provides larger living spaces, but vertical development involves constructing high-rise buildings.
Step 1: Decode and Map the Passage
Part A: Create Passage Analysis Table
| Text from Passage | Analysis |
|---|---|
| Urban planners use different strategies to address housing shortages in growing cities. |
|
| Vertical development involves constructing high-rise residential buildings. |
|
| Mixed-use towers combine residential units with commercial and office spaces. |
|
| This maximizes land efficiency in dense urban areas. |
|
| Horizontal expansion involves developing suburban residential communities. |
|
| This provides larger living spaces but requires more land area. |
|
| Cities with limited available land typically prioritize vertical development strategies. |
|
Part B: Provide Passage Architecture & Core Elements
Main Point: Urban planners have two main strategies for housing shortages—vertical development and horizontal expansion—with cities facing land constraints typically choosing vertical approaches because they maximize land efficiency.
Argument Flow: The notes establish two contrasting development strategies, explain their characteristics and trade-offs, then reveal the key relationship that cities with limited land typically choose vertical development due to its land efficiency advantages.
Step 2: Interpret the Question Precisely
What's being asked? We need to find which choice most effectively explains why cities with limited land choose specific development approaches using the relevant information from the notes.
What type of answer do we need? An explanation that connects the reasoning (why) behind the choice that limited-land cities make, using information from the student's research notes.
Any limiting keywords? most effectively explains, why, limited land, using the relevant information from the notes
Step 3: Prethink the Answer
- The right answer should explain that cities with limited land choose vertical development because it maximizes land efficiency, making it the logical choice when land is scarce
Mixed-use towers combine residential units with commercial spaces, while horizontal expansion develops suburban communities.
- Simply describes what strategies are without explaining why cities with limited land would choose one over the other
Because vertical development maximizes land efficiency in dense urban areas, cities with limited available land typically prioritize these strategies over horizontal expansion.
- Provides the causal reasoning and directly connects this reasoning to the choice limited-land cities make using relevant information from the notes
Urban planners use vertical development and horizontal expansion as different strategies to address housing shortages.
- Makes a general statement about planners using both strategies but doesn't explain why cities with limited land choose specific approaches
Horizontal expansion provides larger living spaces, but vertical development involves constructing high-rise buildings.
- Describes characteristics of both approaches but doesn't connect these characteristics to why limited-land cities make specific choices