Self-paced
1990 editorial: Support Local pay phone calls have cost a quarter apiece ever since the 1970s, when a soft drink from a vending machine cost about the same. ███ █████ ██ █ ████ █████ ███ ████ ████ ███████ ██████ ██ █████ █████████ ██████ ██ ███████ ██ █████ ███ █████ ██ ███ █████ █████ ████
Summarize Argument
The price of pay phone calls should be allowed to increase. This is because twenty years ago they were the same price as a soft drink, and today, the price of a soft drink has more than doubled while the price of a pay phone call has remain unchanged.
Notable Assumptions
The author of the editorial assumes that the price increase of soda is not a necessary response to market conditions that local pay phone calls do not encounter (i.e., if the cost to produce soda increased, the price had to rise accordingly).
8.
Which one of the following, ██ █████ ████ ███████ ███ ███████████ █████████
a
A pay phone █████████ ████ ████ ████ █ ██████████ ███████ ██ ███ ██████
This does not affect the argument. Regardless of the cost to purchase a pay phone or a soft-drink machine in the 1970s, the services and goods offered by these machines were priced the same.
b
Due to inflation, ███ ██████ ██ ████ █████ ████ ████ ███████ ███████ ███ █████ ███ █████
This does not affect the argument. We don’t know if soft drinks are among the goods whose prices increased due to inflation, or if the increase was caused by something else. It is possible that (B) does not even apply to soft drinks.
c
Government regulation of █████ ████ ██████ ███ ███ ██████ ████ █████████ ███████ ███ █████ ███ █████
This does not affect the argument. Whether government regulation did or did not become more stringent during this period does not weaken the author’s conclusion that at the time of writing, the price of pay phone calls should be allowed to increase.
d
Between the 1970s ███ ████ ███ ████ ██ ███████████ ███ ████ ██████ █████████ ██ █ ███████ ████ ████ ███ ████ ██ █████████ ██████████
This weakens the argument. It attacks the assumption that the increase in the price of soft drinks is not due to a market condition that pay phone calls do not also face. In other words, it costs more to produce a soft drink, but not to service a phone call.
e
Technological advances made █████████ █████████ ████ █████████████ ███████ ███ █████ ███ █████
This does not affect the argument. The increased sophistication of telephone equipment does not tell us about the cost to service or price to make a phone call.