Recent environmental findings from the urban region have contested a city planner's suggestion that municipal authorities should focus on enhancing...
GMAT Craft and Structure : (Structure) Questions
Recent environmental findings from the urban region have contested a city planner's suggestion that municipal authorities should focus on enhancing mass transit systems rather than curbing factory pollution. This new information is improbable to _______ his recommendation completely but will likely require supplementary ecological assessment research.
Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word or phrase?
reinforce
invalidate
elaborate
execute
Step 1: Decode and Map the Passage
Part A: Passage Analysis Table
| Text from Passage | Analysis |
|---|---|
| "Recent environmental findings from the urban region have contested a city planner's suggestion that municipal authorities should focus on enhancing mass transit systems rather than curbing factory pollution." |
|
| "This new information is improbable to" |
|
| [MISSING WORD] |
|
| "his recommendation completely" |
|
| "but will likely require supplementary ecological assessment research." |
|
Part B: Passage Architecture & Core Elements
Main Point: New environmental findings challenge a city planner's transit-focused recommendation, but don't completely eliminate its validity and instead create a need for further study.
Argument Flow: The passage presents a situation where new evidence contests an existing recommendation, then clarifies that this evidence isn't strong enough to completely destroy the recommendation but does necessitate additional research.
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
- The missing word needs to describe what the new environmental findings are unlikely to do to the planner's recommendation "completely"
- Since we know the findings "contested" the recommendation, we need a word that would be the logical extreme of "contesting" something
- The structure tells us that while the findings challenge the recommendation, they don't go so far as to completely [BLANK] it
reinforce
- "Reinforce" means to strengthen or support something
- This contradicts the fact that the findings "contested" the recommendation
- If findings contested something, they wouldn't reinforce it
invalidate
- "Invalidate" means to make something void or worthless
- This perfectly fits the logic: findings contested the recommendation but are unlikely to completely invalidate it
- Creates the right relationship between challenging evidence and the measured response that more research is needed
elaborate
- "Elaborate" means to add detail or expand on something
- This doesn't make sense with "improbable" - there's nothing unlikely about new information adding detail to a recommendation
- Doesn't connect logically with the "contested" relationship established earlier
execute
- "Execute" means to carry out or implement something
- The sentence structure suggests the new information would act upon the recommendation, not implement it