Question

a study by a team including finance professor madhu veeraraghavan suggests that exposure to sunshine during the workday can lead to overly optimistic behavior. using data spanning from 1994 to 2010 for a set of us companies, the team compared over 29,000 annual earnings forecasts to the actual earnings later reported by those companies. the team found that the greater the exposure to sunshine at work in the two weeks before a manager submitted an earnings forecast, the more the manager’s forecast exceeded what the company actually earned that year.
1 mark for review
which choice best states the function of the underlined sentence in the overall structure of the text?
a to summarize the results of the team’s analysis
b to present a specific example that illustrates the study’s findings
c to explain part of the methodology used in the team’s study
d to call out a challenge the team faced in conducting its analysis

Explanation:

The underlined sentence describes the data used (from 1994 - 2010 for US companies) and the action of comparing earnings forecasts to actual earnings, which is part of the study's methodology (how the study was conducted). Option A is incorrect as it's not summarizing results (results are in the next sentence). Option B is incorrect as it's not an example but a description of the study's process. Option D is incorrect as no challenge is mentioned.

Answer:

C. To explain part of the methodology used in the team’s study