Self-study
A recent test of an electric insect control device discovered that, Support of the more than 300 insects killed during one 24-hour period, only 12 were mosquitoes. ████ ████ ████ ██ ██████ ███ ████ ████ ████████ ███ ████ ███ █████████████ ███ ██ ███████████ ███ ███████████ █████████ ████████ ███████████
Summarize Argument
The author concludes that an insect control device will not help to control the mosquito population. This is based on a recent test that showed that mosquitos were only a small fraction of the total insects killed by the device.
Notable Assumptions
The author assumes that because most insects killed by the device weren't mosquitos, that means that the device didn't kill most or all nearby mosquitos. In other words, the author assumes that the numbers were due to the device's poor ability to kill mosquitos, not due to a low number of mosquitos.
4.
Which one of the following, ██ █████ ████ █████████ ███████ ███ █████████
a
A careful search ██████████ ██ ████ ██████████ ██ ███ ████████ ██ ███ ██████ █████ ███ █████
This rebuts the assumption that the device failed to kill nearby mosquitos—instead, the total number of mosquitos was the issue. This undermines the author's conclusion.
b
A very large ██████████ ██ ███ ███████ ████ ████ █████████ ██ ███ ██████ ████ ███ ███████████
This isn't helpful, because it doesn't tell us whether there were any additional mosquitos around for the device to attract. It doesn't affect the argument at all.
c
The device is ████ ██████ ██ ████ ██████████ ███████ ████ ██ ██ ██ ████ ███████ ████████
We’re specifically interested in the device's usefulness for controlling mosquito populations. It's irrelevant how beneficial the device is overall.
d
Many of the ███████ ████ ████ ██████ ██ ███ ██████ ███ ███████████████ ████████
If anything, this strengthens the argument. By killing the mosquitos' predators, the device undermines another means of controlling the mosquito population.
e
The device does ███ ███████ ██ ███████ ███ ██ ███ ███████ ████ ██ █████████
This isn't specific enough for us to know if the device let any mosquitos escape. Without that information, this isn't relevant.