#21 - City official: Landowners must clear the snow from

[Administrator]

Please post your questions below!

[Juanq42]

Hi!

I had many contenders for this question, and am wondering how I would eliminate the remaining 4 answer choices -

Answer B: Cannot be true. Incorrect. B is saying that it will bill landowners who do not clear snow WITHIN (BY) 24 hours. However, the stimulus states how they will be given a 24 hour grace period to clear their snow and won't be charged until afterwards.

Answer C: Too absolute. Incorrect. Within 24 hours of a snowstorm, the city has the right to clear the snow, but it doesn't guarantee it. The city's snow-clearing department could be understaffed, or have yet been assigned to clear the remaining snow.

Answer D: I am having trouble identifying if they are referring to the "fine" to snow services done 48-hours after the fact ONLY or if they include the 24-hour "bill" as a "fine."

Also, I have Issue with "nearly all"... It COULD be true, but doesn't have to be. If 48-hour landowner who did not clear snow demonstrates extenuating circumstances, then none of them will be fined... ( but they will still be BILLED for the 24 hour infraction.

OR

ALL of them could be fined, if none of them demonstrate extenuating circumstances or (choose not to go through the hassle).

Answer E: Incorrect because landowners can demonstrate extenuating circumstances, but still be billed for snow removal services if they exceed at minimum 24 hours after a snowstorm's end?

[mbruehl]

I would love the an explanation on why E is correct too. I selected B. How I read the stimulus is that no matter what, if your sidewalk is not cleared after 24 hours then the city will bill you in order to clear it. If you don't clear it within 48 hours then the city in addition to billing will also write you a citation that can result in an additional fine if you can't demonstrate extenuating circumstances. But the extenuating circumstances clause only applies to waive the citation not the bill after 24 hours. Now re-reading it I do notice that it says the city " has the right to clear any sidewalk" and bill you for it which I get means won't automatically get you billed, but I don't understand how E is correct since the billing is separated from the citation process and it never explicitly tells you that the bill will also be waived if you can demonstrate extenuating circumstances.

[Jeremy Press]

Hi Juan and Mbruehl!

Let me address both your posts at once.

Mbruehl, answer choice E is not the correct answer on this question. Answer choice A is the correct answer. Answer choice E is incorrect for the reasons you state: billing and citation are not necessarily connected in the stimulus, so demonstrating extenuating circumstances (which can relieve the fines resulting from citation) doesn't have any necessary connection to the billing process.

Juan, answer choice B is incorrect for the reasons that Mbruehl stated. Landowners who haven't cleared their sidewalks get billed "whenever" the city clears the sidewalk more than 24 hours after the storm ends, but that doesn't mean they get necessarily get billed when the city does not clear the sidewalk. It's possible that if the city chooses not to do any clearing, the landowner will not get billed.

Your reasoning for eliminating answer choice C is correct (and in fact the possibilities you list are the same reasons that landowners might not end up getting billed even if they leave their sidewalks uncleared).

For answer choice D, we have no evidence that the author of the stimulus understands the "bill" as being the same as the "fine," and without that evidence we have to keep those two terms separate. Focusing on the rules governing fines, answer choice D is wrong because we don't know how many landowners will be able to demonstrate extenuating circumstances (avoiding a fine), and thus we do not know for sure that "nearly all" of them will be fined.

Your reasoning for answer choice E is correct, assuming you treat "billing" as different than being "fined." There's no extenuating circumstances exception for billing, so answer choice E is beyond what the stimulus states.

Answer choice A is correct, because we know the city bills when it clears the snow instead of the landowner (50 hours is more than 24, so the billing rule applies here), and because the extenuating circumstances exception only applies to relieve the fine that results from citation, whereas the 48-hour rule for citations applies to all landowners who haven't cleared snow without any exceptions.

I hope this helps!

Jeremy

[jm123]

I want to make sure I fully understand why A is correct.

The answer uses conditional reasoning so we know that if the city clears the sidewalk in this situation it will bill the landowner because it has been more than 24 hours.

However, I am not sure why the owner will receive a citation. I think I got it confused because I looked at it as you cannot receive a citation and be fined at the same time. In other words, I thought that if you can demonstrate extenuating circumstances you will not be fined and not receive a citation. However, it is possible that you receive a citation without being fined as long as you are able to demonstrate extenuating circumstances. No matter what, if the snow has not been cleared within 48 hours you will receive a citation but it does not necessarily have to come with a fine. Is that correct?

[Christen Hammock]

Hi jm!

The passage says that landowners will receive a citation if their sidewalks aren't cleared after 48 hours. The citation results in a fine unless the owner can prove extenuating circumstances. In other words, extenuating circumstances could halt the link between citations and fines. Answer Choice (A) doesn't mention anything about fines, so we don't have to conclude anything one way or the other about that!