Question

Read the passage below and answer the question that follows.

In the 1936 presidential election, two polling organizations predicted two different winners. The Gallup Organization predicted that Democrat Franklin Roosevelt would win, while a poll conduct by Literary Digest predicted Republican Alf Langdon would win. Roosevelt won the election with 61 percent of the vote.

The organizations used two different means of surveying voters. Gallup asked over 3,000 different people, surveying both men and women and with specific numbers of people coming from different social classes. The Literary Digest poll surveyed over 10 million people listed in automobile and telephone registries.

Consider the facts presented above. What might explain how these two polls arrived at very different predictions?

A.
The Literary Digest poll used a larger percentage of the population, which made their survey less accurate.
B.
The Gallup Organization was a known supporter of Democratic candidates and its poll reflected that.
C.
Many respondents to the Literary Digest poll were not truthful in their responses.
D.
To limit bias, the Gallup poll surveyed people from various backgrounds, while the Literary Digest poll surveyed only those who were car and phone owners—people more likely to be wealthy in the 1930s.


PLEASE HELP 45 POINTS

Answer 1

Answer: D

Explanation: I just toke the test.

Answer 2

Answer: The correct answer is D- the Gallup poll surveyed people from different backgrounds

Explanation: In 1936 the Great Depression was coming to an end. Many people were out of work or were very low income. The telephone was a luxury back then that many people couldn’t afford. The Literary Digest used a list of telephone and car owners, completely ignoring the unfortunates who had neither- and their prediction ended up being way off as Roosevelt won in a landslide.