Self-study
Conclusion If future improvements to computer simulations of automobile crashes enable computers to provide as much reliable information about the effectiveness of automobile safety features as is provided by actual test crashes, then manufacturers will use far fewer actual test crashes. ███ ███ █████ ██ █████████ ███ ███████ ████████ ███████████ ███ ████ █████ ████ █████ ██ ██████ ████ ████████
Summarize Argument
The author concludes car manufacturers will use fewer physical test crashes if simulations provide as much information about safety features as physical crashes. Why? Because running simulations is far cheaper.
Notable Assumptions
The author assumes there’s no advantage to physical test crashes over simulated crashes that would outweigh the higher cost. In particular, this means assuming simulations would provide at least as much information not related to safety features as physical crashes and that fewer test crashes would be legally permitted.
12.
Which one of the following, ██ █████ ████ ████████ ████████ ███ █████████
a
Apart from information █████ ██████ █████████ ██████ ████ ███████ ███████ ████ ██████ ███████████ ██ ██████████ ██ ██████████ ██████████████
This makes concrete the author’s assumption that physical crashes provide no more non-safety information than simulated crashes. It means manufacturers wouldn’t lose out on other information by switching from physical crashes to simulated ones.
b
It is highly ██████ ████ ██████ ███ ████ ██ █████ ████████ ███████████ ██ ██████████ ███████ ████ ██ ████ ██ ███████ █ ███████ ██████ ██ ████████ ███████████ █████ ███ █████████████ ██ ██████████ ██████ ████████ ████ ███ ██ ████████ ██ ██████ ████ ████████
This supports future manufacturers using simulated crashes—not reducing the number of physical crashes. It doesn’t address the author’s assumption that there’s no advantage to physical crashes over simulated crashes.
c
If computer simulations ████ ████ ██ ████ ██ ███████ ████ ███████████ █████ ███ █████████████ ██ ██████████ ██████ █████████ ██████████ █████████████ ████ ████ ██ ████ ██ ███████ █████ █████
This suggests simulated crashes are useful, not that physical crashes are useless. It doesn’t address the author’s primary assumption—that there’s nothing manufacturers can get from physical crashes they can’t get from simulated crashes.
d
The cost per ██████████ ██ ███████ ███ █████████ ██████ ████████ ██ ██████████ ███ ████ ████████ ██ ████████ ███ ███ ███████████ ███████
This is irrelevant. It doesn’t suggest that cost considerations will become more significant in the future when deciding whether to conduct physical or simulated crashes.
e
For years, the ████████ ████████ ███ ████ ████████████ █████ ████████ ███████████ ██ ████████ ███████ ██ ████ ███ █████████████ ██ ██████ ████████ ██ ████████ ████████
This is irrelevant. It suggests crash simulations are useful in an analogous field: aviation. It doesn’t say that either airplane or automobile manufacturers will run fewer physical test crashes if simulations improve.