Self-study
Airport administrator: According to the latest figures, less than 1 commercial flight in 2 million strays off course while landing, a number low enough to allow runways to be built closer together without a significant increase in risk. █████████ ██ ██████ ███████ █████ ████ ███ ██████ ██ ██████ ██ █ ██ ███████ ███ ████ ██████ ██ █████ ██ █ ███████ ██████ ██ ███ ███████ ███████ █████ ███ ██ ██ ██████████ ██████████ ████████ ██ ███ █████ ███████ █████ ██ █████ ██ █ ████████ █████ ██ ███ ██████ ███████ ████████ ██ ██████ ███ ███ ██████████ ████████
Summarize Argument: Counter-Position
The author concludes that the 1/20,000 figure is less reliable than the 1 in 2 million figure concerning the chance a commercial flight will stray off course when landing. This is based on the fact that the 1/20,000 figure is based on a partial review of air traffic control tapes, while the 1 in 2 mil. figure is based on a study of flight reports of pilots for all commercial flights.
Identify and Describe Flaw
The author doesn’t provide any compelling reason to think a partial review of air traffic control tapes is any less reliable than a review of flight reports for all flights. The tapes might contain more accurate information than the flight reports, even if the tapes don’t involve a review of all flights.
16.
Which one of the following ████ ██████████ █████████ █ ████ ██ ███ ███████ ███████████████ █████████
a
The argument presumes, ███████ █████████ ██████████████ ████ ████████ ███████ ██████ ████████ ████ █████████ ██████ ██ ██ ████ ████████ █████ ████████
The argument concerns which statistic is more reliable. The impact of building runways closer together on pilots’ level of caution doesn’t bear on which statistic is more reliable.
b
The argument overlooks ███ ████ ████ █████ ███ ████ ████████ ███ █████ ██████████ ███████ ██ ███████████ █████ █████ █████████
The flight reports are “required of pilots”; this indicates the pilots are the sources of the reports. (B) points out that this information can be unreliable, because pilots who stray off course — which is a mistake — might not report that mistake.
c
The argument questions ███ █████████ ██ █████ ███ ███ ███████ ██ ████████ ███████ ██ ██ █████ ██████ █████████
The argument doesn’t question the integrity of any individuals. It relies on premises concerning the basis of the two statistics. Neither of these statistics comes from those who are against closer runways.
d
The argument presumes, ███████ █████████ ██████████████ ████ ███ ███ ███████ ███████ █████ ███████ ██ ███ ███████ ████████ ███████████ ██████████ ████████ ████████
The author doesn’t assert that the tapes cannot provide accurate information. The author’s complaint is that the review of those tapes is only “partial.” So the author is open to the possibility that information in the tapes is accurate; it may be accurate, but incomplete.
e
The argument infers ████ █ ████ ██ ██████████ ████████ ██████████ ███ ██████ ████████ ████████ ████ ██ ████ ██ ███████████
The author doesn’t conclude that the 1/20,000 figure is inaccurate, only that it’s less reliable. Also, the basis of the conclusion is not a lack of conclusive evidence for the 1/20,000 figure. The basis is a comparison of the sources of the two figures.