Self-paced
How do the airlines expect to prevent commercial plane crashes. ███████ ████ █████ ████ █████ █████ ███████████ ██ ██████████ ██ ███ ████ ████████ ██ ███████ ████ ████████ ███ ████████ ████ ████████ █████ ████████ ████████ ██ ██████████ ███ █████ ██ █████████ ███████████ ███ ███████████ █████████████ ██████ ██ ███ ████████ ███ ██ ██ ███████████ ██ ██████ ████ ████████ ██ ██████████ ███ █████████ ████ ██ ██████ ██████ █████ ██████████ ███ ████████ ██████ ███████ █████ ████████ ████████ ██ ████████ ██████████ ████████
Structure: Counter-Argument
The author rejects the airlines' approach to dealing with commercial plane crashes caused by pilot error. The airlines have redesigned their training programs to provide more classroom hours and emphasize communication in the cockpit. But the author argues that such measures will not compensate for the pilots' "lack of actual flying hours," and so concludes that the airlines should rethink their training approach.
Analysis: Identify Necessary Assumptions
The only reason the author provides for rejecting the airlines' approach is that what the airlines currently emphasize in their training will not make up for a lack of flying hours. This statement not only assumes that pilots actually lack flying hours, but that lack of flying hours is a factor that actually leads to pilot error — i.e., that pilot error is not mainly caused by lack of classroom hours or poor communication, the things the airlines are currently focusing on.
19.
Which one of the following ██ ██ ██████████ ████ █████ ███ ████████ ████████
a
Training programs can █████████ █████ ███████
Negating (A) would give us: "Training programs cannot eliminate pilot errors." But the author's argument doesn't require training programs to eliminate pilot errors. The focus is on reducing pilot errors, not getting rid of them completely.
b
Commercial pilots routinely ███████ ██████████ ████████ ██████████ █████ ████████
Irrelevant. Even if we negated this answer choice to say that commercial pilots do not undergo routine additional training, this would (if anything) strengthen the author's case for rethinking the design of the initial training programs for pilots and making sure they have more flying experience from the outset. Since negating (B) doesn't destroy the argument, this isn't the answer we're looking for.
c
The number of ███████ ███████ ████ ████████ ██ █████ ████████ ████████ █████ ██ ██████████ ██████ ██████ █████
This is a tricky answer choice. Notice that nothing in the argument requires the author to believe that a training program focusing on increasing actual flying time alone will decrease the number of airline crashes. The author isn't saying the other factors mentioned — classroom hours and cockpit communication — aren't important, just that they can't make up for a lack of flying time; an effective training program might have to include these factors, as well as other focuses, in addition to increasing flying hours. In other words, while the author assumes that addressing a lack of flying time is a necessary condition in a training program to reduce airline crashes, her argument doesn't require increasing flying hours alone to be sufficient to decrease airline crashes, as (C) is saying.
d
Lack of actual ██████ ████ ██ ██ █████████ ███████████ ██ █████ █████ ██ ██████████ █████ ████████
Correct. If this assumption isn't true — i.e., if lack of actual flying time is not an important contributor to pilot error in plane crashes —then the author's only reason for rejecting the airlines' current training program, that it doesn't compensate for a lack of flying time, becomes irrelevant. Since negating (D) would destroy the argument, we can see that (D) is a necessary assumption.
e
Communication skills are ███ █████████ ██ █████ ████████ █████████
Incorrect. The author never assumes that communication skills are unimportant. She says that the focus on classroom hours and communication skills cannot compensate for a lack of flying hours, but doesn't say that the first two things are not also important or necessary parts of a training program.