The mayor's announcement of potential water usage fines sparked community backlash, which _______ wasteful practices: residents who had previously bee...
GMAT Craft and Structure : (Structure) Questions
The mayor's announcement of potential water usage fines sparked community backlash, which _______ wasteful practices: residents who had previously been mindful of conservation began using more water in protest, believing that the proposed restrictions represented government overreach and warranted resistance.
Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word or phrase?
preventing
encouraging
documenting
regulating
Step 1: Decode and Map the Passage
Part A: Create Passage Analysis Table
| Text from Passage | Analysis |
|---|---|
| 'The mayor's announcement of potential water usage fines sparked community backlash,' |
|
| 'which ________ wasteful practices:' |
|
| 'residents who had previously been mindful of conservation began using more water in protest,' |
|
| 'believing that the proposed restrictions represented government overreach and warranted resistance.' |
|
Part B: Provide Passage Architecture & Core Elements
Main Point: The mayor's announcement of water usage fines backfired by causing even conservation-minded residents to increase their water usage in protest.
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 logical relationship here is crucial
- The backlash came before the blank, and wasteful practices came after
- Looking at our evidence, residents who were previously conservation-minded started using MORE water in protest
- This means the backlash actually led to an increase in wasteful behavior
- The missing word needs to show that the backlash caused wasteful practices to increase
preventing
✗ Incorrect
- 'Preventing' would mean the backlash stopped wasteful practices, which contradicts our evidence that residents increased their water usage
encouraging
✓ Correct
- 'Encouraging' means the backlash promoted wasteful practices, which perfectly matches our evidence of conservation-minded residents using more water
documenting
✗ Incorrect
- 'Documenting' would mean recording practices, not creating a cause-and-effect relationship
regulating
✗ Incorrect
- 'Regulating' doesn't fit since the backlash was against regulation, not implementing it