PT154.S4.Q21

PrepTest 154 - Section 4 - Question 21

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Engineer: Air bags in automobiles occasionally cause injuries by accidentally inflating when no collision has occurred. ██████████ █████████████ ███ ██████████ ██ ███ ███ ███████ ██ █████████ ████ █████████ ████████ ███████ ███████ ███ ███ █████ ███ ███ ████ ███████ ████ █ ██████ ███ ███ ████ ████ █████ ███ ██ █████ ██ ███ █████ █████ ███ ███ ████████ ███████ ███████ ████ ████████ ████ ████ ███ ████████ ████ ██████████ ███ ███ █████████ ████ ██████

Summarize Argument

The author concludes that new, more complicated computer control systems for controlling air bags will probably increase the likelihood of accidental air bag inflation. This is because the new systems have more ways to fail than the older air bag control systems.

Identify and Describe Flaw

The author assumes that have a greater number of ways to fail implies a greater overall chance of failing. This doesn’t have to be true. Maybe, for example, there are now twice as many ways to fail. But each of those ways might have a tiny chance of occurring, such that the overall chance of failure is not necessarily higher than the chance that older systems would fail. Older systems might have had just one or two ways to fail, but each way could have had a very high chance of occurring.

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21.

The engineer's argument is most ██████████ ██ █████████ ██ █████ ███ ██ ███ █████████ ████████

a

It fails to ███████ ██████████ ███ ███████████ ████ ███ ██████████ ██ █ ████████ ███████ ████ ███ ████████ ████ ███ ██████ ██ ████ ██ █████ ██ ███ █████

b

It takes for ███████ ████ ███ ███████ ██ ██ ███ █████ ████████ ███████ ██████ ████ █████ ████ ███ ███ ██ ███████ █████████████

c

It fails to ███████ ██████████ ███ ███████████ ████ ███ ████ ███ █████ ████████████ ███████ ████ ████ █████ ████████ ███████ ███████ ██ ███ █████

d

It overlooks the ███████████ █████ ████ ██ ███ ███ ████████ ███████ ███████ ██████████ ███ ████████ ████ ██████████ ███ ███ ██████████ ████ ███ ████ ██████████ ████ ████████ ████ █████████████

e

It overlooks the ███████████ █████ ████ ██ ███ ████ ████████████ █████ ██████████ █████████ ████ ███ ███████████ ██ ███████████ ███ ██████████ ████ ████ ████████ ████ ████ ██████

Confirm action

Are you sure?