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Question

Difficulty: HardAvoiding Out-of-Scope and 'Could Be True' Inference Traps

Passage:
In 2022, a municipal public health board enacted a regulatory mandate stipulating that any water treatment facility constructed after the mandate's passage must incorporate advanced ultraviolet disinfection units. Official compliance reports confirm that every facility incorporating advanced ultraviolet disinfection units successfully reduced bacterial counts below threshold levels. Furthermore, municipal records indicate that total administrative overhead costs dropped in every municipality where a water treatment facility was constructed between 2022 and 2025.

Statement: Based on the passage above, it MUST BE TRUE that at least one water treatment facility incorporating advanced ultraviolet disinfection units was constructed between 2022 and 2025 in a municipality where total administrative overhead costs dropped.

Answer: Answer

Answer

The statement is False because the passage provides conditional mandates and observations, but does not state or guarantee that any water treatment facility was actually constructed after 2022.
The correct answer is False because the passage sets forth conditional requirements (what occurs IF a facility is built) without establishing that any facility was built between 2022 and 2025. Without proof of actual construction, the statement is merely a 'could be true' scenario rather than a strictly required deduction.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Analyze the logical structure of the passage premises.
Premise 1: Facility constructed post-2022 → Must incorporate UV units (Conditional Rule). Premise 2: UV units → Reduced bacterial counts. Premise 3: Facility constructed between 2022 and 2025 → Administrative overhead dropped in that municipality.
Distinguish between conditional rules and existential facts in the stimulus.
2
Check whether the antecedent condition (that a facility was actually constructed post-2022) is established as fact.
The passage contains no premise asserting that any construction project actually took place after 2022.
Determine if the existence of at least one constructed facility is logically guaranteed.
3
Evaluate the truth value of the 'Must Be True' statement.
If zero facilities were constructed, all conditional rules remain uncontradicted, yet no such facility exists. Thus, the statement COULD be true (if construction occurred), but it DOES NOT MUST BE TRUE. Therefore, the assertion that it MUST be true is False.
Avoid the classic GMAT trap of confusing 'could be true' scenarios with 'must be true' deductions.

Key Concept

Avoiding 'Could Be True' and Existential Assumptions in Conditional Deduction
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Topics

Avoiding Out-of-Scope and 'Could Be True' Inference Traps

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