Self-study
Advances in photocopying technology allow criminals with no printing expertise to counterfeit paper currency. ███ ████████ ██████████████████ ██████████ ██████████████ ██████ █████ ████████ ████ ████ ███████ ████ ██████ ██ ███████████ ███████████ ████████ ████████████ ██ ████████████ ████████ ███ ██ ████████ ██████ ██ ████████ ████ ████████████ █████ █████████ ██████ ██████ █████ █████████ ██ ████████████ ██████ ████ ███████ ████████ █████████ █████ █████ ████████ ████ █ ███████ ████ ████████ ███████ ████ ███ ███ █████ ██████ █████ █████████ ██ ███ ████████ █████ ███████ ███ ███████ ███████████ ████████████ ██ ████ ████████ █████ ████ ███████ ████ █████████ █████ █████ ██████ ██ ██████ ███████████ ███████████ ████████ ███████ ██ ██████ ██ ███████ ███████ ██ ██████████████ ███████ ███ ████████
Summarize Argument
The author concludes that a special ink technique should be adopted as an anticounterfeiting measure, even though it's more expensive. This is because special ink would allow counterfeit money to be identified more easily than with the current microprinting technique.
Notable Assumptions
The author assumes that the special ink technique’s benefits outweigh the additional expense. That is, the author assumes that easier detection of counterfeits is more valuable than the money that would be saved by continuing to use microprinting. The author also assumes that the special ink technique is no easier to imitate than the microprinting technique.
5.
Which one of the following, ██ █████ ████ █████████ ██████████ ███ █████████
a
The longer the ████████ ███████ ███ ████ █ ███████████ ████ ██████ ████ ███████████ ███ ███ ████ ███ ███████████ ██ █████████ ███ ████ █████████ ██ ██ ███ ███ ███████████ █████████ ██ █████████ ███ ██████████████
This seems to support the author’s argument, rather than weakening. If we don’t identify counterfeit bills quickly enough, those bills proliferate, so we need a practice that catches those bills immediately (like special ink).
b
Sophisticated counterfeiters could ███████ ████████ ███████ ████ ███ ███████ ███ ███ ██████ █████████ ████████████ ████████ ████████
Some counterfeiters can perfectly replicate the “special ink” practice, which defeats the purpose of adopting it in the first place. This undermines the argument by denying one of the author's assumptions.
c
Further advances in ████████████ ██████████ ████ ████████████ ████████ ███ █████ ██ ██████ ████ ███████████ ███ ██████████
If anything, this gives even more reason to switch away from the microprinting practice, because photocopying technology will soon render microprinting useless as a defence against counterfeiters. This doesn't weaken at all.
d
The largest quantities ██ ███████████ ████████ ███ ████████ ███████████ ███ ████████ ██ ████████ █████████ ███ ██████ ██ ██████████████ ████ ████████
Generally, people who create counterfeit bills aren’t committed specialists. What does that mean for the argument? Can hobbyist counterfeiters imitate either of these techniques? We don't know, so this is irrelevant.
e
It is very █████████ ██ ████ ████████ █████████ ██ ████ ███ █████ ██ ███████ █████ ██ ██ █████ ███████ ██ ███████████ ████████ ██████████ ███████
In other words, the benefit of catching counterfeit currency early is uncertain. This does nothing to the argument, because it neither strengthens nor weakens the case for the easily-detected special ink.