I have a concern with the current OA to question-2
According to the passage,
Quote:
"FAA’s more prominent functions is to regulate the safety of the airline industry, which it does by creating and enforcing rules that govern the manufacture and operation of commercial aircraft."
This clearly indicates FAA has a list of responsibilities besides regulating the safety of the airline.
The author brings up a "cost-benefit analysis" to explain the FAA's stance to allow lap-children.
Quote:
E) defend the FAA’s ability to successfully manage its list of responsibilities
I have an issue with Option-E. Though the word "defend" is attractive but the issue is with later part, it uses the word "successfully" and "list".
--Because we don't know if FAA is successful after allowing lap-children and
--"list of responsibilities", though in the passage it is stated that FAA has more functions but passage only focused on one responsibility i.e. safety. We don't know about the remaining items in the list and how FAA managed them.
I believe Option B is more convincing because of the words it used i.e. explains the reason(rationale) and supports(underpin) FAA's decision(to allow lap-children).
This is my understanding from the passage, I welcome any feedback on this explanation.