RC Application questions: taking the author's view somewhere new

An Application question describes a case the passage never discusses and asks which one the author would most likely approve of, classify a certain way, or regard as an example of their point. Stems read "which one of the following is most analogous to" or "the author would be most likely to consider which one of the following".

Nothing in the passage answers this directly, by design. You have to extract the principle the author was operating on and carry it to a new case — which is the Principle question type from Logical Reasoning, run on a longer text.

State the principle in one sentence first

Before reading a single choice, put the author's operating rule into one sentence, stripped of the passage's subject matter. Not "the author thinks the 1970s reforms failed" but "the author thinks a reform fails when it changes procedures without changing incentives."

That second version can be applied to anything. The first can only be recalled. Application answers are always about some unrelated field — if the passage was about urban planning, the answer will be about hospitals or orchestras — and only the topic-free version travels.

Then check the conditions, one at a time

With the rule written, each choice is a matching exercise. Does this case actually satisfy every condition the rule needs? If the rule is about reforms that leave incentives untouched, a case where incentives changed does not trigger it — however similar the situation feels otherwise.

• Same topic as the passage. Feels closest and is usually the trap; genuine analogies are drawn from elsewhere.
• Satisfies most conditions. One requirement unmet means the rule never fires, and it is exactly the choice students settle for.
• Applies a principle the passage mentioned but the author did not endorse — often a view the passage was criticizing.
• Right structure, wrong direction. The rule condemns; the answer has the author praising.
• Requires a further claim. Plausible only if you grant something extra the passage never established.