The early British postal system required the cost of mail delivery to be paid upon receipt, a system which encouraged...
GMAT Craft and Structure : (Structure) Questions
The early British postal system required the cost of mail delivery to be paid upon receipt, a system which encouraged inventive strategies by the intended recipient to avoid payment. To improve this system, ________ were proposed in 1837, including the use of a postage stamp, a small receipt pasted to the mail indicating that delivery costs had been paid by the sender.
Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word or phrase?
investigations
expansions
reforms
possessions
Step 1: Decode and Map the Passage
Create Passage Analysis Table
| Text from Passage | Analysis |
|---|---|
| "The early British postal system required the cost of mail delivery to be paid upon receipt, a system which encouraged inventive strategies by the intended recipient to avoid payment." |
|
| "To improve this system," |
|
| [MISSING WORD] |
|
| "were proposed in 1837, including the use of a postage stamp, a small receipt pasted to the mail indicating that delivery costs had been paid by the sender." |
|
Provide Passage Architecture & Core Elements
Main Point: The British postal system was reformed in 1837 with proposals like postage stamps to solve the problem of recipients avoiding payment.
Argument Flow: The passage first establishes the problem with the old system (recipients avoiding payment), then introduces that solutions were proposed in 1837, with postage stamps as a key example of these proposed changes.
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
- Looking at our passage analysis, we need a word that describes what was "proposed in 1837" to "improve this system."
- The context makes it clear that something was proposed specifically to fix this problem.
- The example given (postage stamps) represents a fundamental change to how the system worked.
- The right answer should be something that means "changes" or "improvements" - specifically, systematic changes designed to fix the identified problems.
investigations
investigations
- ✗ Incorrect
- This would mean studying or examining the system.
- Doesn't fit because the passage talks about implementing solutions (like postage stamps), not researching the problem.
expansions
expansions
- ✗ Incorrect
- This would mean making the postal system bigger or more extensive.
- Doesn't address the core problem of payment avoidance.
- The postage stamp example shows a fundamental change in how payment works, not system growth.
reforms
reforms
- ✓ Correct
- Means systematic changes or improvements to fix problems.
- Perfectly fits the context of fixing a flawed system.
- The postage stamp example represents exactly this kind of systematic reform.
possessions
possessions
- ✗ Incorrect
- This would mean belongings or things owned.
- Makes no logical sense in this context about postal system improvements.
- Completely unrelated to the problem-solution structure of the passage.