Self-paced
Editorial: The legislature is considering allowing oil drilling in the Cape Simmons Nature Preserve. ██████████ █████ █████ ███████ ██████ ████████ ███████ ████ ██ █████ █████ ████ ██ ██ ██████ ██ ███ ████████████ ████████ ████ █████ ██ ██████ █████████ ██ ███████ ██ ██████ ██████ ████ █████ ███ ████████ █████ ████ █████ ████ ███ ████ █████ ██ ██████ ██ ██████████ ███████ ████████ ██████████ ███ █████████ ██ █████ ██ █████ ███ ██████████
Summarize Argument
The editorialist concludes that, despite using modern drilling methods, oil drilling will cause environmental damage in Cape Simmons Nature Preserve. This claim is backed up by a comparison to an analogous case in Alphin Bay, where drilling which began five years ago has caused significant damage.
Notable Assumptions
The editorialist assumes that Cape Simmons and Alphin Bay are relevantly analogous. In other words, the land in Cape Simmons would suffer similar effects to Alphin Bay. This includes the assumption that modern oil drilling methods were used in Alphin Bay.
3.
Which one of the following, ██ █████ ████ ███████████ ███ ████████ ██ ███ ██████████
a
The Cape Simmons ██████ ████████ ██ ███ ██ ███ ███ █████ ██ ████████ ██████████ ██ ███ ███████
The number of other areas of pristine wilderness in the region is irrelevant to whether the Cape Simmons Nature Preserve will suffer environmental damage from oil drilling.
b
The companies drilling ███ ███ ██ ██████ ███ █████ ███████ ████ ████████ █████ █████ ███ █████ ███ █████████████ ███████
Oil drilling companies’ claims about the effects of drilling in Alphin Bay are irrelevant to the editorialist’s argument about the effects of drilling in Cape Simmons.
c
The editorialist believes ████ ███ ████████ ██████ ███ ██ ███████ ██ █ ██████ ████████ ██████ ██ █████ █████ ██ █████████████ ███████
The editorialist makes no claims about whether oil drilling should or should not be allowed due to causing environmental damage, only whether it will cause environmental damage in the first place.
d
There have been ██ ███████████ ███████ ██ ███ ████████ ███████ ██ ███ ████ ████ ██████
This justifies the editorialist’s assumption that the likely effects of oil drilling in Cape Simmons can be predicted from its effects in Alphin Bay, as the same modern drilling methods would be used in both cases.
e
Oil drilling is ████ ███ ██ ███████ ██████████ ██████████ ████ █████ █████ ██ ██████ ████
This claim would potentially weaken the argument, as it provides possible alternate explanations for the environmental damage at Alphin Bay—namely, the other industrial activities taking place there. It certainly doesn’t strengthen.