The meaning of a term — Aptitude Question
The meaning of a term: Planners once assumed that widening a road would ease congestion. Answer and worked solution on CodeKairo.
- Topic: Reading Comprehension
- Section: Verbal Ability
- Difficulty: Medium
- Time target: 75 seconds
Question
Planners once assumed that widening a road would ease congestion. Decades of evidence suggest otherwise. Additional capacity lowers the effective cost of driving, which draws in journeys that were previously not made at all, until the road is as crowded as before. Economists call this induced demand. The finding does not mean roads should never be built, but it does mean that congestion cannot be engineered away by supply alone.
As used in the passage, 'induced demand' refers to:
Options
- Journeys that were not made before but are made once capacity increases
- Demand created by advertising
- The cost of building new roads
- Congestion caused by accidents
Show the answer and the worked solution
Correct answer: A. Journeys that were not made before but are made once capacity increases
Worked solution
- The passage says extra capacity 'draws in journeys that were previously not made at all', and calls this induced demand.
- That matches the first option exactly.
Answer: Journeys that were not made before but are made once capacity increases.
The idea
Vocabulary-in-context questions are answered by the surrounding sentences, not by outside knowledge of the term.
Shortcut. The sentence before 'Economists call this induced demand' is the definition: journeys 'previously not made at all' drawn in by extra capacity. Only one option mentions new journeys.
Common trap. "Demand created by advertising" — 'induced' suggests something artificially stimulated, which outside knowledge links to marketing; the passage defines it as new journeys drawn in by added road capacity.