Self-study
Support Modern navigation systems, which are found in most of today's commercial aircraft, are made with low-power circuitry, which is more susceptible to interference than the vacuum-tube circuitry found in older planes. ██████ ████████ ██████████ ███████ ███████ █████ ███████ ████ ███ ███████ ██ █████ ███ █████ ██ ███ ███████ █████████ ███ █████ ████ █████████ █████████ ██████ ███ ██████ ██████ ████████ ███ █████ ████████ ████ █ █████████ ██████ ██ █ ██████ █████████ ████████ ██████ ████████ ██████████ ███████ ███ █████ ███ ██ ████ ██ ███ ██████████ ███████ ████ ██████████ █████ ██ ██████ ████ ██ ████████ ███████ ███ ██████ ██████████
Summarize Argument: Phenomenon-Hypothesis
The author hypothesizes that passengers using electronic devices put modern airplanes at risk. Why? Because the planes’ navigation systems use low-power circuitry that’s more susceptible to interference than vacuum-tube circuitry in old planes, as illustrated by a recent incident where a navigation system apparently malfunctioned when a passenger opened a laptop.
Notable Assumptions
The author assumes the navigation system’s behavior during the off-course landing was unusual and occurred because the passenger opened their laptop, and not for some other reason. This means assuming laptops and cassette players carried by passengers produce radiation that’s capable of interfering with a modern navigation system.
26.
Which one of the following, ██ █████ █████ ███████████ ███ ████████ ██████
a
After the laptop ████████ ███ ██████ ████ ███ █████ ████████ ██████ ███ ███ ██████████ ███████████ ███ █████ ████████ ██ ███████
This strengthens the argument by making it more likely the laptop caused the navigation system’s behavior during the off-course landing.
Plausibility
Plausibility
Presenting evidence that corroborates (in Strengthen) or conflicts (in Weaken) with the author's hypothesized explanation or the predictions that follow from that explanation.
b
When in use ███ ██████████ ███████ ████ ███████████████ ██████████ █████ ██ █████ ██ █████████ ████ ██████████
This strengthens the argument by confirming that cassette players, laptops, and other devices produce radiation. It rules out the possibility that some electronic devices emit no radiation, which would weaken the argument.
Causal mechanism
Causal mechanism
Answers that undermine, or help establish, the practical story of how an alleged cause could produce the alleged effect.
c
No problems with ████████████ █████████ ██ ██████████ █████ ████ ████ ████████ ██ ███████ ████ ██ ███████████████ ██████████ ███████ ██ ██████
This strengthens the argument by ruling out a powerful counterexample. If similar behavior had occurred on flights with no passenger-owned devices, then the laptop’s responsibility would be less likely.
Plausibility
Plausibility
Presenting evidence that corroborates (in Strengthen) or conflicts (in Weaken) with the author's hypothesized explanation or the predictions that follow from that explanation.
d
Significant electromagnetic radiation ████ ████████ ██████████ ███████ ███ ██████ ██ ██ █████ ███████ ███ ████ █████████ █████ ██ ██████ ████████ ███ ███████ ██████ ████ ██████ ██ ███ ██████████ ████████
This strengthens the argument by confirming that passengers sit close enough for radiation from their devices to reach navigation systems. If all the passengers sat too far away for their radiation to reach those systems, the argument would falter.
Causal mechanism
Causal mechanism
Answers that undermine, or help establish, the practical story of how an alleged cause could produce the alleged effect.
e
Planes were first ████████ ████ █████████ █████████ ██ █████ ███ ████ ████ ████████ ██████████ ███████ ██████ ████████
This is irrelevant. The author concludes there’s a risk presently—it doesn’t matter when passenger-owned devices and low-power circuitry became prevalent, so long as they’re both prevalent right now.