Quote:
The decision to ban the use of hands-free mobile phone headsets while driving is not justified. There is no doubt that mobile phone use while driving is distracting and dangerous. However, it is dangerous because drivers use their hands and eyes to operate the phone, when their full physical attention should be on the road. Hands-free technologies allow for mobile phone use without such distractions, and these options should remain legal.
Which of the following, if true, undermines the argument above?
(A) The functioning of the eyes and the hands is governed by the brain and there is considerable evidence to show that the use of mobile phones distracts the brain.
(B) Most good quality hands-free headsets are expensive which will discourage people from buying them.
(C) Just because something is legal does not necessarily mean that it is safe.
(D) There have been some incidents of road accidents involving drivers who were talking on the mobile phones using hands-free technology while driving at the time of the accident.
(E) There are other technologies available, such as the use of Bluetooth to connect one’s mobile phone to the car’s speaker system, that are much safer than the use of handsfree devices.
The right answer here should be
A. We are looking to weaken the conclusion, which means that we should suggest that hands-free should not be legal.
A - The main premise offered in support of using hands-free is that the use of hands and eyes is eliminated, thereby allowing full attention. But this point clearly undermines that evidence, since it suggests that the use of phones actually affects the user at the common source of problem, the brain. This therefore clearly undermines the argument and is
CORRECT.
B - This has nothing to do with the argument, we care about whether it should be legal.
OUTC - If anything, this supports the argument. If something need not be safe to be legal, then this supports keeping hands-free legal.
OUTD - This is the
trap answer. It shows a link between people using hands-free when they had an accident. But as any STAT101 student can tell you,
correlation does NOT mean causation. All we know is that these two things happened at the same time.
We DONT know that hands free actually caused the problem. Hence, this doesn't undermine the argument and is
OUTE - The fact that there are safer techs doesn't mean that this should be illegal. A 780 on the GMAT is better than a 720, but this does not make a 720 bad.
OUTHope this helped!
- Matoo