题目：
The United States is not usually thought of as a nation of parakeet lovers. Yet in a census of parakeet owners in selected comparable countries, the United States ranked second, with eleven parakeet owners per hundred people. The conclusion can be drawn from this that people in the United States are more likely to own parakeets than are people in most other countries.
Knowledge of which of the following would be most useful in judging the accuracy of the conclusion
A．The number of parakeets in the United States.
B．The number of parakeet owners in the United States.
C．The number of parakeet owners per hundred people in the country that ranked first in the census.
D．The number of parakeet owners in the United States compared to the numbers of owners of other pet birds in the United States.
E．(E) The numbers of parakeet owners per hundred people in the countries not included in the census.
答案：
参考答案：E
解析： 本题结论的前提是美国每百人拥有长尾鹦鹉的人数在“selected comparable countries”中位居第二，本题的结论是美国人比大多数其他国家的人更喜欢养长尾鹦鹉。考生应当注意的是前提的比较范围与结论的比较范围是不一样的，结论中的比较范围不但包括“selected comparable countries”，而且还包括其他未包括在该调查报告中的国家，因此要判断结论的正确性，还必须要知道未包括在该调查报告中的其他国家的每百人中拥有长尾鹦鹉的人数，也即(E)为正确答案；(A)不能说明本题的结论；不同国家的人数差异较大，因此知道美国的养长尾鹦鹉的人数也对本题的结论毫无帮助，所以(B)是错误的。本题结论比较的对象是most other countries，因此与排名第一的国家每百人中拥有长尾鹦鹉的人数无关；(D)引入了本题论述未提及的新比较，与结论无关，所以也是错误选项。
