PT23.S1.Q5

SECTION 1 · lr

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SECTION 2 · lr

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SECTION 3 · lr

Question 1 Question 2 Question 3 Question 4 Question 5 Question 6 Question 7 Question 8 Question 9 Question 10 Question 11 Question 12 Question 13 Question 14 Question 15 Question 16 Question 17 Question 18 Question 19 Question 20 Question 21 Question 22 Question 23 Question 24

SECTION 4 · rc

PASSAGE 1
Question 1 Question 2 Question 3 Question 4 Question 5

PASSAGE 2
Question 6 Question 7 Question 8 Question 9 Question 10 Question 11 Question 12 Question 13

PASSAGE 3
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PASSAGE 4
Question 19 Question 20 Question 21 Question 22 Question 23 Question 24 Question 25 Question 26

PrepTest 23 - Section 1 - Question 5

Question

Explanation

Analytics

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Support A government agency publishes ratings of airlines, ranking highest the airlines that have the smallest proportion of late flights. ███ ██████████ ███████ ██ ██ █████████ ██ █████████ ███████ ██ ███ ████████ ██████████ ██ █████████ ███████████ █████████ ██ ███████ █████████ ██████ ██████████

Argument Summary

The stimulus tells us that a government agency ranks airlines based on their proportion of late flights: those with the smallest proportion are ranked highest. We are then told why the agency does this: it wants to develop an "objective measure" of how different airlines' personnel compare with each other in keeping to the published flight schedule.

Notable Assumptions

The stimulus itself is purely descriptive: it tells us two things about this government agency. The real "argument" here is what the government agency itself thinks. It must assume that because it ranks airlines based on the proportion of late flights (the closest thing here to a premise), it will be able to develop an objective comparison of how different airlines' personnel manage to keep to the flight schedule (the closest thing here to a conclusion).

In short, the agency reasons that an airline's proportion of late flights reveals something consistent about the performance of that airline's personnel. A good way to weaken this argument would be to suggest that this is not the case. Perhaps some airlines fly in areas with worse flying conditions, or encounter other factors independent of personnel that cause them to have more late flights.

Analysis by ArdaschirArguelles

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Which one of the following, ██ █████ █████ ████ ██ ██████████ ███ ██ ███ ███████ ███ ███ ██████████ ████████

Travelers sometimes have ██ ██████ ██ ████████ ███ █ █████ ████ ██ █ █████ █████

Irrelevant. Whether or not travelers have a choice of airlines at a given time doesn't have a bearing on an airline's proportion of late flights, and on whether those late flights are caused by the airline's personnel.

Flights are often ████ ████ ██ ███ ███████ ██████████ ████ ██████ ████ ████████ ████ ████ ███████

This weakens the argument. If it is true that some airlines encounter bad weather conditions more than others, then it could be that those airlines have a higher proportion of late flights even though their personnel are just as efficient as those of other airlines. This would suggest the rankings can't be used for the agency's stated purpose.

The flight schedules ██ ███ ████████ █████ █████ ████ ███ ███████ ████ ██ ████ ██ ███ ██ ████ ████ █████████

Irrelevant. If this is true for all airlines, then it's not clear how it would shift the relative rankings or undermine the agency's interpretation of the proportion of late flights. We're trying to weaken the connection between "proportion of late flights" and "efficiency of personnel" — this answer choice doesn't do that.

Airline personnel are █████ ████ ███ ██████████ ██████ ██ ██████████ ███ ███████ ███████ ███ █████████

This doesn't weaken. Even if all airline personnel are aware that their late flights are being monitored, it could still be true that the personnel of some airlines are more efficient than those of others, and that this difference in efficiency is reflected in the proportion of late flights.

Flights are defined ██ ██████████ ████ ██ ████ ██████ ████ ████ ███████ ███████ ████ █████ █████████ ███████ █████ ███ █ ██████ ██ ████ ██ ███ ████ █████ ████ ███████ ███████ ████ ████

This doesn't weaken. Since this definition applies to all airlines, not just to a few airlines selectively, this answer choice doesn't suggest that some airlines are held to a higher standard than others. We're trying to cast doubt on the relationship between the rankings, based on proportion of late flights, and the relative efficiency of an airline's personnel. It's not clear how this answer choice does that.

Difficulty

Question

87% of people who answer get this correct

This is a low-difficulty question.

CURVE

Score of students with a 50% chance of getting this right

25% 120

129

75% 146

Analysis

Question Stem Tags

Weaken

Stimulus Tags

Causal reasoning

Answer Popularity

Popularity Avg. score

154

87%

160

153

156

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