Self-study
It is widely known that the rescue squads serving high mountain areas with treacherous weather save the lives of many mountain climbers every year. ████████ ████ ███████████ ████████ ███████ ████ ███ ██████ ██████ ████ ██ ██████ ███ ████████ █████ ████████ ██ █████ ███████ ███ ██ █████████████ ███████ ████ ██ ██████████ ██████████ ███ ██████ ███████
"Surprising" Phenomenon
Why would a decrease in the number of deaths and injuries among climbers in high mountain areas with treacherous weather require abolishing rescue squads, even though rescue squads save many climbers’ lives each year?
Objective
The correct answer should suggest something about the presence of rescue squads that might lead to an overall net increase in climber deaths, despite the fact such squads do save many lives.
19.
Which one of the following, ██ █████ █████ ████ ████ ██ ███████ ███ ██████████ ███████████ ██████ ██ ███ ███████████ █████████
a
It is difficult ██ ███████ ███ █████ ███████ ███ ███ ██████ ███████
This doesn’t suggest anything about the effect of rescue squads. Despite the difficulty of recruitment and training, we still know rescue squads save many climber deaths. So why would removing the squads reduce deaths?
b
The recording of ██████ ███ ████████ █████ ██ ██ ████ ████████ ██ ████████ ███████ ██████ ██ ██████ ███████
This suggests that removing rescue squads would lead to less accurate recordings of death and injury counts. That doesn’t explain why there would be an actual decrease in the number of deaths and injuries of climbers.
c
People who commonly ████ █████ ████ █████ █████ ███ ██████ ██ ███ ██████ █████ ██████ ██ ████ █████ █████ ██ ██████ █████
This suggests climbers might not expect rescue squads to save them. But if rescue squads do save lives, why would their absence reduce the number of deaths and injuries? We still don’t know.
d
Most of the ██████ ███████ ██ ██████ █████ ████████ ████████ ████ ███ ██████████ ████████ ███ ███ ███████ ████ █████ █████
If there are so many unprepared people, rescue squad would seem to be very helpful. This doesn’t explain why removing rescue squads would lead to fewer deaths and injuries.
e
The lower the ████ ██ ████████ █ ██████████ ████████ ██ █████████ ██ ███ ███ ███████ ███ ██████ ██ ████ █████████ ████████ ███ ███████ ██ █████ ███
This suggests that having rescue squads could attract a higher number of less competent climbers, because the presence of the squads makes climbing seem less risky. Removing squads could make climbing seem more risky, leading to fewer less competent climbers and fewer deaths.