A computer crash has occurred when a computer's central

Hello again, GDT. This one took me almost three minutes to solve. I was certain the answer had to be (C) or (E), and I did choose the correct answer because I thought (C) was the harder of the two to argue against. This is a test-taking skill that has taken me years as a tutor to hone, looking to disprove weaker answers rather than just go with the one I like the most. The following is my take on each answer choice:


Analysis: What do we know about the conditions that damage the hard drive? The penultimate line tells us:

Whenever a micron 401 computer crashes without producing an error message on the screen, the computer's hard drive is damaged.

Cindy presumably saw an error message, since she reasoned that the hard drive was not damaged. Had the computer worked faster during the crash, that can only be seen as a potential plus: a faster-working machine might, in fact, work fast enough during a crash to produce an error message, and the crisis would be averted, since only the absence of an error message indicates hard-drive damage. Truth is, we will never know what could be true on this one, but this answer choice works against the logic of the must-be-true question and the information presented in the passage. Red light.


Analysis: The passage does not indicate anything about the specifications of the computer unit, making this answer choice complete speculation. Get rid of it and move on. Red light.


Analysis: We have to parse this conditional statement to get at the heart of the truth and make an assessment. The if trigger removes the apparent cause of the crash, an electrical power surge. What do we know about when a power surge does cause a crash? The middle of the passage tells us:

The micron 401 computer usually does not work fast enough during a crash to produce an error message on the screen before the computer 'freezes'. However an error message can be triggered by an electrical power surge to the computer.

Going backwards from sentence to sentence, we understand that a power surge can cause an error message to appear on the screen before the computer 'freezes.' If we remove the cause, what then? See if the rest of choice (C) provides a reasonable answer. No, seriously. Look back up at the latter half of the answer choice:

the computer's processor worked unusually fast during the crash.

That makes sense, since again, Cindy presumably saw an error message to conclude that her computer was fine. If a "normal" cause such as a power surge did not on its own prompt the error message, then we can conclude that the scenario, according to the first of the two lines from the passage quoted above, would not have been a "usual" case, and we can reinterpret that very line as saying that the micron 401 computer sometimes, although not usually, works fast enough during a crash to produce an error message. Taken altogether, this answer choice is hard to argue against. Green light.


Analysis: This statement is just as verifiable as the one in (B), and we can eliminate it on similar grounds. To reiterate, the passage gives us no information on how the computer was built--i.e. to what specifications it was constructed. Red light.


Analysis: This can seem reasonable. The computer crashed, and then an error message appeared, just before everything went hazy (or static). But the same line from the middle of the passage goes against this outcome as a certainty:

The micron 401 computer usually does not work fast enough during a crash to produce an error message on the screen before the computer 'freezes'.

If the computer usually does not work fast enough... before the computer 'freezes,' then that leaves the door open to other, less usual circumstances. Red light.

I hope that helps answer your question. It was a tough nut to crack, but a careful reading can guide you all the way.

- Andrew