Many children from poor backgrounds would benefit from wearing spectacles but do not have them. Sometimes parents are not aware of their children’s poor eyesight, but most often they suffer from financial constraints. The government should provide free glasses to poor children with eyesight problems. A recent study of underprivileged students with poor vision demonstrated that those who were given free glasses enjoyed an improvement in test scores equivalent to almost a year of additional schooling. Using the most conservative estimate of the impact of schooling on salary, this would significantly increase an average school-leaver’s annual income and tax contributions, and by far more than the cost of a pair of glasses.
Which one of the following best expresses the main conclusion of the above argument?
A. Exam marking should take into account any disabilities the student might have.
B. Parents should be educated about potential eyesight problems in children.
C. Children from poor backgrounds with bad eyesight should be given additional schooling.
D. The government should help financially with the provision of children’s glasses.
E. People’s salaries should reflect whether or not they had eyesight problems during school.
In your own words, make a conclusion for the passage. What is the author’s main idea?
Find a sentence in the text that matches the conclusion you made, and underline it.
Keep an eye out for giveaway words and phrases
Find an answer that matches the underlined sentence.
The passage above is very pro-glasses in schools. The benefits are brought up when children who receive glasses start to perform better in school. To overcome the financial barrier, support from the government would be of great use, and it estimates that it would increase those who benefitted’s tax contributions by more than the cost of the glasses. So we have both an ethical and financial reason to do this. Now we can check out the answers:
A. Exam marking should take into account any disabilities the student might have.
The solution mentioned is to provide them glasses, not to give them a handy cap in which they are given a bonus for having bad eyesight. Therefore A is incorrect.
B. Parents should be educated about potential eyesight problems in children.
The problem is mostly a financial barrier and not an issue of understanding if there is a problem. Therefore B is incorrect as the financial barrier is the most relevant.
C. Children from poor backgrounds with bad eyesight should be given additional schooling.
This is confusing us with a statement that says children given glasses have test score improvements almost equal to an additional year of school. Therefore C is incorrect because the author’s solution (what we want to conclude) has to do with finding a way to get children these glasses, not accommodate them with handicaps or special privileges.
D. The government should help financially with the provision of children’s glasses.
This is what the author is trying to push us towards. We first are told that it can increase children’s test scores and help them to advance at a level similar to taking an extra year in school. The benefit to the government is that they will receive more money in taxes from these people because the glasses will enable students to get higher grades, make more money, and pay more taxes. Therefore D is correct.
E. People’s salaries should reflect whether or not they had eyesight problems during school.
This is trying to trick us into what is written in the last sentence. The last sentence is saying that those who receive glasses from the government are likely to see higher paydays because they will be able to perform better in school. Whether or not you have glasses does not matter because some people do not need them at all, the point is to say that when you can see, you can perform better in school and are likely to make more money when older. Therefore E is incorrect.