Self-study
Travel agent: Although most low-fare airlines have had few, if any, accidents, Support very few such airlines have been in existence long enough for their safety records to be reliably established. █████ █████████ ██ ███ █████ █████ ███████ ████ █████████████ ███████ ████████ ██████████ █████ ██████ ██ ███████ ██████ ██████████ ███ █████ ██ █ █████ ███████ ████ ██ ███ ██ ███ █████ ████████ █████████
Summarize Argument
The travel agent concludes that passengers are safer on major airlines than on low-fare airlines. He supports this by saying that most major airlines have long-standing, reliable safety records, while low-fare airlines often don’t have enough history to establish reliable safety records.
Identify and Describe Flaw
The travel agent draws a comparative conclusion about major airlines being safer than low-fare airlines. However, he doesn’t actually establish the safety of either kind of airline, so he can’t accurately compare the two.
Just because major airlines have reliable records doesn’t mean that those records indicate that the airlines are safe. In fact, the reliable records might show that major airlines are unsafe. Similarly, just because low-fare airlines don’t have established safety records doesn’t mean that they are actually unsafe.
18.
Of the following, which one ██ ███ █████████ ██ █████ ███ █████████ ██ ███ ██████ ███████ ████████ ██ ████ ███████████
a
The argument fails ██ ███████ ██████████ ███ ███████████ ████ ███ ███████ █████ ███████ ███ ███ █ █████ ██████ ██ █████████ ██ █████ ██ ███ ███████ ████████ ███████ ███ ████
If anything, having the same number of accidents as low-fare airlines would support the idea that major airlines are safer, since they’ve been around longer than low-fare airlines. Also, (A) simply doesn’t point out the argument’s key vulnerability.
b
The argument draws █ ███████ ██████████ █████ ███ ████ ██████████ ███ ██ █████████ ████████ ██ ███ █████ ██ ██████ ███████ ████ ███ ████ ████ ███ █████ █ ██████ ██ ██████████ ███████ ████ █ ███████████
The agent says low-fare airline records are too short to be reliable while major airline records are not. His argument is vulnerable because it draws a general conclusion about passengers’ safety on different airlines without actually establishing the airlines’ safety at all.
c
The argument fails ██ ████████ ███ ███████████ ████ █████████████ ███ ████████ ███████ ███████████ ██ █████████ ██████ ██ ██████ ███ ████████ ████ ███ ███████ ██ ███████
The agent concludes that major airlines are safer because their safety records are more long-standing and reliable. However, he fails to consider that those reliable records might actually show that major airlines are unsafe.
d
The argument takes ███ ███████ ████ ████████ ████ ███ ███ ██████ ███ ████ ███ ████ ████████ ██ ███████████ █████ ███████
The agent assumes that airlines with more reliable records are safer. But he doesn't necessarily assume that the safest airlines are the most reliable in documenting their safety.
e
The argument fails ██ ███████ ██████████ ███ ███████████ ████ ████ ████████ ████ ██████████████ ████████ ███████ ██████████ █████ ██████ ██ ██████ ███ █████ ██████ ██ ████ ███ ██ ████ ██████████
The agent is simply saying that major airlines are comparatively safer than low-fare airlines. As long as they have fewer accidents than low-fare airlines, it doesn’t matter whether major airlines still have some accidents.