Self-study
Telephone companies are promoting "voice mail" as an alternative to the answering machine. ██ █████████ ████████ ████ ███████ ████ █ ██████████ ████ ███ ████ ██████ ██ ███ ██ ███ ██████████ █████ ████ ████████ █ ███████ ███████ ██ ████ ██ ██ █████████ ████████ ███ █████████ █████████ ████ ███████ █████ ████ ██ ████ ████ ████ █████████ ████████ █████████ █████ ██ ██ ████ ████ ███████████ ████ █████████ ███ ████ █████████ ████ ██ █████████ ████████
Summarize Argument
The telephone companies promoting voicemail conclude that voicemail will soon make answering machines obsolete. This prediction is supported by the observation that voicemail is more convenient, more flexible, and less expensive than answering machines.
Notable Assumptions
The telephone companies are assuming that there are not reasons other than convenience, flexibility, and cost that determine whether consumers use voicemail or answering machines. It could be true that voicemail is superior in convenience, flexibility, and cost, but users still prefer answering machines for some other reason. This would weaken the support for the conclusion that answering machines will soon be obsolete.
24.
Which one of the following, ██ █████ ████ █████ ████ ████████ ███ ████████ ████ ██ ███ █████████ █████████ █████ █████
a
Unlike calls made ██ ██████ ██ █████████ █████████ ███ █████████ █████ ████ ██ ██████████ ███████████ ███ ██████████ ████ ██ ███ ████ ██████ ██ ██ ███ ██ ███ ████ ██ ███ █████
This actually marginally strengthens the argument. (A) gives a reason why voicemail may be superior to answering machines.
b
The surge in █████ ██ █████████ ████████ ████████ ███████ █████ ████ ████ █████ ██████████ ██ ███ ███████████ ███████
This information about a past sales surge for answering machines has no impact on the prediction that answering machines will soon become obsolete. This claim is not relevant to the strength of support for the conclusion.
c
Once a telephone ████████ ███████ ██ █████████ ██ █████ █████ ████ ████████ ███ ██████ ███ ███████ ██ ███ █████
This does not weaken the argument. This flexibility in subscription to voicemail gives another possible benefit to voicemail, and it does not weaken the argument that answering machines will soon be obsolete.
d
Answering machines enable ███ ████████ ██ ████ ███ ██ ███████ ██████ ███ ████████ ███████ ███████ ██ ██████ ███ ██████████ █ ███████ █████ ████ ████ ███ ████████
This information weakens the argument because it provides a new reason that one may prefer answering machines over voicemail. Because of this benefit that voicemail does not have, there is less support for the prediction that answering machines will soon be obsolete.
e
The number of ████████ █ █████████ █████████ ███████ ███ ██████ ██ ███████ ██ ███ ██████ ██ ███ ████████ ████ ██ █████ █████ ███ █████████
This information provides a downside to using answering machines. This does not weaken the argument that answering machines will soon be obsolete.