PT106.S1.Q26

PrepTest 106 - Section 1 - Question 26

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Support Modern navigation systems, which are found in most of today's commercial aircraft, are made with low-power circuitry, which is more susceptible to interference than the vacuum-tube circuitry found in older planes. ██████ ████████ ██████████ ███████ ███████ █████ ███████ ████ ███ ███████ ██ █████ ███ █████ ██ ███ ███████ █████████ ███ █████ ████ █████████ █████████ ██████ ███ ██████ ██████ ████████ ███ █████ ████████ ████ █ █████████ ██████ ██ █ ██████ █████████ ████████ ██████ ████████ ██████████ ███████ ███ █████ ███ ██ ████ ██ ███ ██████████ ███████ ████ ██████████ █████ ██ ██████ ████ ██ ████████ ███████ ███ ██████ ██████████

Argument Summary

The author argues that modern aircraft navigation systems are "put at risk" by passengers' electronic devices. The support for this conclusion is the general statement that these modern navigation systems use a type of circuitry that is "more susceptible" to interference than the circuitry in older planes, and one example of a plane with one of these systems veering off course when a passenger turned on a laptop computer.

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26.

Which one of the following, ██ █████ █████ ███████████ ███ ████████ ██████

a

After the laptop ████████ ███ ██████ ████ ███ █████ ████████ ██████ ███ ███ ██████████ ███████████ ███ █████ ████████ ██ ███████

This isn't what we're looking for. (A) strengthens the argument by supporting the assumption that the laptop caused the plane to veer off course by interfering with the navigation system.
Plausibility
1%
b

When in use ███ ██████████ ███████ ████ ███████████████ ██████████ █████ ██ █████ ██ █████████ ████ ██████████

This isn't what we're looking for either. (B) strengthens the argument by confirming another assumption embedded in the argument: that other electronic devices, not just laptops, also interfere with aircraft navigation systems.
Causal mechanism
5%
c

No problems with ████████████ █████████ ██ ██████████ █████ ████ ████ ████████ ██ ███████ ████ ██ ███████████████ ██████████ ███████ ██ ██████

This isn’t the answer we want. (C) might not seem to strengthen the argument very much, but it at least raises the likelihood that, in the example of the plane experiencing navigational issues, the cause was the laptop or another electronic device on board.
Plausibility
5%
d

Significant electromagnetic radiation ████ ████████ ██████████ ███████ ███ ██████ ██ ██ █████ ███████ ███ ████ █████████ █████ ██ ██████ ████████ ███ ███████ ██████ ████ ██████ ██ ███ ██████████ ████████

This isn’t the answer we want. (D) strengthens the argument by explaining how passenger-owned electronic devices can interfere with navigation systems.
Causal mechanism
6%
e

Planes were first ████████ ████ █████████ █████████ ██ █████ ███ ████ ████ ████████ ██████████ ███████ ██████ ████████

Correct. (E) just reports a correlation about when these new navigation systems were produced and when portable electronic devices became popular. This doesn’t do anything to strengthen the claim that electronic devices are putting the new navigation systems at risk.
83%

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