Self-study
Support Combustion of gasoline in automobile engines produces benzene, a known carcinogen. █████████████████ ███████ █████████ ████████ ████ █████████ █████ ████ ███ ███████ ███████████ ██████████ ██ ███████ ████ ███████ ████████ ██████████ ██ ████████ ████████ █████████████ ████ █ █████ ███████████ █████████ ███ ██████████████████ ████████ ███ ██████ ██████
Summarize Argument
The environmentalists conclude gasoline should be replaced with methanol. Why? Because unlike gasoline, methanol doesn’t produce a significant amount of benzene when it’s burned.
Notable Assumptions
The environmentalists assume the advantages of switching from gasoline to methanol outweigh the disadvantages. In particular, they assume the formaldehyde produced by methanol is no more harmful than the benzene produced by gasoline.
1.
Which one of the following, ██ █████ ████ ████████ ███ ██████████████████ █████████
a
The engines of ████ ███████████ ███ ██ ███ ████ ████ ██████ ████ ██████ ████ █████████
This is irrelevant. The environmentalists don’t imply a switch is only worthwhile if it applies to all vehicles on the road.
b
Several large research ███████ ███ █████ ███ ██ █████████ ███████████████ █████ ██ █████████
This is irrelevant. It doesn’t give any likelihood those efforts will be successful, nor does it say cleaner-burning gasoline would produce more or less benzene.
c
In some regions, ███ █████ ███████ ██ ███████ █████████ ██ ██████████ ███████ ██ ███ ██████████ ███ ████████████ ██ ██████████ █████
This fails to distinguish between gasoline and methanol, both of which are discussed as automobile fuel. It doesn’t say a switch from gasoline to methanol would benefit these local economies.
d
Formaldehyde is a ████ ██████ ██████████ ████ ████████
This supports the environmentalists’ proposal. It suggests burning methanol produces a less potent carcinogen than burning gasoline, which implies methanol may be safer than gasoline.
e
Since methanol is █████ ████████ ████████ ██████ ███ ████ ████████ ██ ███ ███████████ ████ ████████ ███████
This weakens the environmentalists’ argument. It implies switching to methanol could backfire in the event of a spill, causing more damage to the environment than would gasoline.