yeah, E is true
because the question asks for something that strengthens the"ARGUMENT OF THE PASSAGE"
and he stated that Sparva's insurers pay much although the city has a small population,
then you can conclude that there's less traffic accident there.
then answer choice E is the best answer that supports the author's questioning.

https://www.reddit.com/r/GRE/comments/5 ... _question/

This one was really puzzling to me. The wording completely confounded me. Thanks for posting the link to the reddit post. One of the comments there was the most lucid explanations I found for this problem.

Answer is E.

A) E

The answer is E since it states the specific reason why insurers in Sparva pay for more treatments - because there is fewer accidents. Other choices are off the mark.

This is a phenomenon-hypothesis type argument:
Phenomenon - Insurers in Sparva pay for far more treatments after accidents than insurers in other provinces.
Hypothesis/Explanation - Sparva’s less restrictive policy

In this argument, the author assumes Sparva’s less restrictive policy is the only explanation for insurers paying for far more treatments.
To weaken this type of argument, you say that there is an alternate explanation/hypothesis
To strengthen, you do the opposite i.e you block an alternate explanation.

Now, can you find out an alternate explanation? Well, there may be more number of accidents than the average and that is why insurers had to pay for more treatments.
If you block this case, you get choice E as answer.

Choice E strengthen because Sparva's policy is less restricted, population is less therefore accidents are less. Less restricted policy means no matter how many times anyone has had accident, that person is insured and will be treated no. of times under the conditions of insurance.
That's what I understood.

Took me 4.5 min but got it right.
The reason stated, tpo be supported: POLICY IS THE REASON FOR PAYING MORE
TO strengthen: we need to eliminate any reason that can contradict this fact
1. the population might be greater (author already mentioned a detail about this)
2. there are more accidents- we eliminate this

I found BCD irrelevant.


pls give a kudos

You are looking for an answer with evidence that could support the argument.

To build the argument, there are two key facts: Fact 1: Sparva's policy requires insurers to pay for all medical treatment from accidents without restrictions or preapproval. Other provinces have more restrictive policies. Fact 2: Insurers in Sparva pay for far more treatments than insurers in other provinces, although Sparva's population is not the largest.

Conclusion of the Argument: Because of these facts, Sparva's unique policy must be the reason why insurers pay much more money for treatment here than other provinces.

You're looking for a choice that supports this conclusion AND the method used to argue it.

A- The cost of car insurance has nothing to do with the amount of money insurers pay out. So, not A

B- The cost of medical care in Sparva being higher would actually cause the amount insurers pay to rise. HOWEVER--while this corresponds to the fact that insurers pay more, it has nothing to do with the facts that led the author to her conclusion. In other words, it would be a separate argument to explain why insurers pay more, but it doesn't strengthen the argument the author laid out in this passage. In fact, it weakens the argument. If the cost of medical care is higher, that could be the cause of increased payouts, not the less restrictive policy. So, not B.

C- If true, this doesn't change the facts or the conclusion built on them. It's irrelevant. So, not C

D- We're talking about the amount paid out as a whole, so the number of insurers is irrelevant. Could be less than other provinces, could be more. Doesn't matter. So, not D

E- If there are fewer accidents in Sparva than other places, but the overall cost of treatment is higher (as stated in Fact 2), it means that the average cost per accident is higher in Sparva than any other province. This would support the conclusion that insurers pay more in Sparva than other provinces.

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