Self-study
Journalist: Support Drivers of sport utility vehicles correctly tend to believe that occupants of such vehicles carry lower risk of serious injury as a result of accidents, and Support such drivers therefore tend to drive less carefully than they would in more traditional vehicles. █████ ███ █████████ ██ ████████ █████ ███ ███████ ██████████████ █████ ██ ██████ █████ ████████ ███████ ██ ████████ ██ █████████ ████ ██ ███████ ███ ████████████ ██ ███ ████ ███ █████ ██ ████████ ███ █████ ██ ████ ████████
Summary
The author concludes that the discovery of powerful cures for certain forms of cancer could probably lead to an increase in behaviors that are known to increase the risk of such cancers.
Why?
The author relies on an analogy. Drivers of SUVs believe that their occupants have lower risk of injury as a result of accidents; this leads those drivers to drive less carefully than they would if they were driving non-SUVs.
Notable Assumptions
The point of the analogy is that if you know that there’s a lower risk of a certain danger, you’ll be less careful about taking precautions that could also lower that risk. The author thinks this principle applies to cancer — if people know that there’s something available to lower the risk of cancer (such as powerful cures), they’ll be less likely to take other measures that could also reduce the risk of cancer.
The correct answer might frame the principle differently, so let’s keep an open mind. We can’t expect the correct answer to sound exactly like what I’ve described above.
23.
The journalist's reasoning most closely ████████ ██ █████ ███ ██ ███ █████████ ███████████
a
When people believe ████ █████ ███ ███████ ████████ ████ █████ ████ ██ ██████ ███ ████ ██████████ ████ █ ███████ █████████ █████████ ████ ████ ████ ████ ███ ███████ ████ ████ ███████ ████ ████ ██████ ████ █████
We don’t know that people driving SUVs believe that the SUV is the measure that will most reduce risk to their occupants compared to driving more carefully. We also don’t know that people who might get cancer believe cures are the measure that most reduces the risk of cancer compared to avoiding smoking and overexposure to the sun. So the argument doesn’t conform to (A).
b
The development of ████ ██ ███████ ██████ ████ ███ ████████████ ██ █████████ ████ █████ ████████ ████ ████ █████ █████ ██████ ████ ███████ ██ █████ ████ ██████████
Driving less carefully can lead to the consequence of injury to the occupants. Smoking can lead to the consequence of cancer. But since there are ways to protect from these consequences (SUV, cancer cure), that can make people less careful to avoid the behaviors that can lead to those consequences. In other words, people are more likely to drive less carefully and to smoke. (B) fits the reasoning of the argument.
c
People generally take ███████ ████ ██ █████ █████████ ████ ████ ███████ █████ ██████ ████ ██ ███████ ██████ ██ ████ ███ █████████ ██ ███ ████ ███████ ████ ██ █████ █████████ ████ ████ ███████ ████ ███ ████ ████ ██ ████
We don’t get any descriptions of behaviors that people “believe would not harm them at all.” We don’t know that SUV drivers don’t think they’ll harmed at all from driving less carefully, or that people believe they won’t be harmed at all from smoking.
d
People generally exercise ████ ████ ████ ██████████ ██████████ ████ ████ ██ ████ █████ ████████████ ████ ████ ██████████ ██████████ ██ ███████ █████
We don’t know that an SUV driver believes the risk of driving les carefully is unknown, or that a smoker believes the risk of smoking is unknown. So a principle about how people behavior when performing activities of unknown risk doesn’t match the reasoning.
e
Avoiding serious harm ██ ██████████ ██ █████ █ ████ ████████ ██ ██████ ██ █████ █████████ ███ ████████ ██████ █████ ██ ██████████ ██████████ ██ ███████ ████████
(E) involves a comparison about harm to oneself vs. less harms. But we don’t know that SUV drivers view harm to oneself as more serious than other kinds of harm, or that smokers view harm to oneself as more serious than other kinds of harms.