Mel: The official salary for judges has always been too low to attract the best candidates to the job. The legislature's move to raise the salary has done nothing to improve the situation, because it was coupled with a ban on receiving money for lectures and teaching engagements.Pat: No, the raise in salary really does improve the situation. Since very few judges teach or give lectures, the ban will have little or no negative effect.
The argument centers on how to attract the best candidates to become FUTURE judges. These future judges are "potential members of a group." Pat's response focuses on current judges, or "current members." Although current judges seldom teach or give lecture, future judges might want to do these thing for all kinds of reasons, especially if these future judges are ambitious or with high potential. If you want to attract this type of future judges, you have to heed their needs. The ban will hurt the prospect to attract the best and the brightest future candidates and turn them away to other, more accommodating positions. Therefore, answer A is the right answer to point out this flaw in Pat's response.