Self-study
Taxi driver: My passengers complained when, on a hot day, I turned off my cab's air conditioner while driving up a steep hill. █████ ███ ██████ ██ ████████ ██████ ██ ████ ███ ███ ███ ███████████ ███ █████ ███ ████ ███████ ████████ ████ █████ ████ █████████ ██ ████ ███████ █████████████ ██ ███████ ███ ███ ███ ███████████ ███ ███ █████ █████████
Summarize Argument
The taxi driver concludes he made the right decision to shut off his air conditioning while climbing a steep hill. Why? Because doing so prevented his fuel efficiency from decreasing significantly.
Notable Assumptions
The taxi driver assumes it was better to prevent bad fuel economy than to keep the air conditioning turned on. This means assuming the passengers’ discomfort and complaints are outweighed by the benefits of better fuel efficiency.
3.
Which one of the following ███████████ ██ ██████ ████ ████████ ███ ████ ████████ ██████████
a
A taxi driver ██████ ███ ███ █ █████ ███ ███████████ ██ █████ ██ █████ ████ ██ █████████ ██ ████████ █ ██████████ ██████
This principle doesn’t apply. The taxi driver doesn’t say it would be difficult to run the air conditioner and maintain a consistent speed—in fact, he says it’s possible.
b
A taxi driver ██████ ███ █ █████ ███ ███████████ ████ ██ █████ ██ ████ ███ █████ ████ ███████ ██ ████ █████ ██████ ███████
This principle justifies the taxi driver’s decision. It means a taxi driver shouldn’t run the air conditioning if it causes below-normal fuel economy, regardless of any complaints.
c
A taxi driver ██████ ███ ██ ███████ ███████ ███ ████ ███████ ████ ███████ ███ █████████ ████████
Without instruction on how to weigh those concerns, this principle is insufficient to justify the taxi driver’s decision. It doesn’t say concerns about fuel economy should outweigh concerns about passenger comfort.
d
A taxi driver ██████ ██████ ███ ██ █ ███ ████ ██ ████ ██████ ██ ██████ ████████ █████████████
If anything, this weakens the argument. It suggests the taxi driver should weigh passenger comfort, which clearly affects customer satisfaction, more heavily than fuel economy, which doesn’t.
e
A taxi driver's ███████ ███ ████████████████ ███ █ █████ ██████ ██ ████ ██ ██████████ ████ ██ ██████████ ██ ███ █████████
This weakens the taxi driver’s argument. Since the passengers complained, it implies his turning off the air conditioner was unacceptable.