8) Dear Applicant:
Thank you for your application. Unfortunately, we are unable to offer you a position in our local government office for the summer. As you know, funding for summer jobs is limited, and it is impossible for us to offer jobs to all those who want them. Consequently, we are forced to reject many highly qualified applicants.
Which of the following can be inferred from the letter?
(A) The number of applicants for summer jobs in the government office exceeded the number of summer jobs available.
(B) The applicant who received the letter was considered highly qualified.
(C) Very little funding was available for summer jobs in the government office.
(D) The application of the person who received the letter was considered carefully before being rejected.
(E) Most of those who applied for summer jobs were considered qualified for the available positions.


OA is A but C is a paraphrased answer of "funding for summer jobs is limited".
So, the answer should be C. Plz help...

Key points to note:
(1) Applicant has been declined position.
(2) Funding for summer jobs is limited.
(3) Impossible to offer jobs to all those who want them (apply for the same).
(4) (Govt office) forced to reject many highly qualified applicants.

Now, consider options:
(A) combining 2 & 3 above, it could be reasoned that the number of applicants might be more than number of jobs/ position available (hence the application was rejected). Possibly true.
(B) Nowhere is it mentioned that 4 relates to the applicant in particular. It could be a general info provided in the letter as well.
(C) 2 says that funding is limited. It cannot be considered that their's little funding available. Limited funding suggests that its a relative term and should not be confused with the actual amount of funding available. So, to me it seems that this cannot be concluded for sure.
(D) Nowhere is this mentioned.
(E) This is again something which has a relative term (most of those). 4 above suggests that many applicants are highly qualified but that should not be confused for 'most of them'.

Hence, to me it seemed that (A) is the best possible conclusion that can be drawn out of the given lot.

Thank you for your application. Unfortunately, we are unable to offer you a position in our local government office for the summer. As you know, funding for summer jobs is limited, and it is impossible for us to offer jobs to all those who want them. Consequently, we are forced to reject many highly qualified applicants.

Hi, I think choice A is the best conclusion because we know that the agency can't offer jobs to all those who apply. Thus applicants > position available.

Paraphrasing the facts given can be a good way to draw a conclusion, but be careful not to make any assumptions as you do. I agree with nimish.tiwari that "funding is limited" is not exactly the same as "very little funding available." Limited just means that the funds are not infinite! There could be a rather large amount of funding that is capped at a finite amount.

_________________
Emily Sledge
Instructor
ManhattanGMAT

Thanks a ton Emily and other participants...

Glad it helped.

_________________
Ben Ku
Instructor
ManhattanGMAT

I cannot still understand how we can assume that number of applicants exceeds that of government available jobs.
IMO I can easily assume that
number of applicants <= number of government available jobs
The letter tells that funding is limited not the number of available jobs.

I've gone with B. At least if we assume if the letter is to the single applicant it works.

I go with this bolded part of the rejection letter as justification for A:

Thank you for your application. Unfortunately, we are unable to offer you a position in our local government office for the summer. As you know, funding for summer jobs is limited, and it is impossible for us to offer jobs to all those who want them. Consequently, we are forced to reject many highly qualified applicants.

B makes me nervous because this could be a form letter and not necessarily referring to the applicant's qualifications. All it says is that they have to reject highly qualified applicants; we cannot infer that the recipient of this letter is one of them.

_________________
Jamie Nelson
ManhattanGMAT Instructor