The recent dramatic increase in commuter airline crashes is caused in

Question

The recent dramatic increase in commuter airline crashes is caused in large part by pilot inexperience. As a major growth industry, the commuter airlines have recently had a great increase in the demand for experienced pilots. It is impossible to define and assess pilot experience, however. For example, someone with 1000 hours of flight experience as an instructor in Arizona, where the weather is good, cannot be compared to someone with 1000 hours’ experience as a night cargo pilot in the stormy northeastern United States.

The author’s conclusion that the dramatic increase in commuter airline crashes is caused by pilot inexperience is most weakened by the fact that the author has

(A) argued that it is impossible to measure “pilot experience”

(B) used an example that does not relate logically to the point being illustrated

(C) provided only a partial explanation for the increase in commuter airline crashes

(D) made an unfair comparison between experience as a flight instructor and experience as a night cargo pilot

(E) not specified how much of the recent increase in commuter airline crashes is due to pilot inexperience

shameekv1989 · Answer

The recent dramatic increase in commuter airline crashes is caused in large part by pilot inexperience. As a major growth industry, the commuter airlines have recently had a great increase in the demand for experienced pilots. It is impossible to define and assess pilot experience, however. For example, someone with 1000 hours of flight experience as an instructor in Arizona, where the weather is good, cannot be compared to someone with 1000 hours’ experience as a night cargo pilot in the stormy northeastern United States.

The author’s conclusion that the dramatic increase in commuter airline crashes is caused by pilot inexperience is most weakened by the fact that the author has

(A) argued that it is impossible to measure “pilot experience”

(B) used an example that does not relate logically to the point being illustrated

(C) provided only a partial explanation for the increase in commuter airline crashes

(D) made an unfair comparison between experience as a flight instructor and experience as a night cargo pilot

(E) not specified how much of the recent increase in commuter airline crashes is due to pilot inexperience

The author first mentions that the recent crashes are due to "pilot inexperiences" but later concluded that the definition/measurement for experience is not possible. And then gave examples to support the conclusion.

Thus author is contradicting his point about crashes due to inexperience with his own conclusion that inexperience can not be measured.

Answer - A

boomtangboy · Answer

IMO - B
The author refers to commuter airlines but refers to the experience of a training and cargo pilot that are people who never fly commuter planes.

auradediligodo · Answer

The recent dramatic increase in commuter airline crashes is caused in large part by pilot inexperience. As a major growth industry, the commuter airlines have recently had a great increase in the demand for experienced pilots. It is impossible to define and assess pilot experience, however. For example, someone with 1000 hours of flight experience as an instructor in Arizona, where the weather is good, cannot be compared to someone with 1000 hours’ experience as a night cargo pilot in the stormy northeastern United States.

The author’s conclusion that the dramatic increase in commuter airline crashes is caused by pilot inexperience is most weakened by the fact that the author has

Weaken question

Pre-thinking

Conclusion:  Increase in crashes is due to pilot inexperience.

Claim:  It is impossible to asses pilot experience.

Now the conclusion and the claim are quite contrasting and the author used the claim to strengthen her conclusion. Do we all see the paradox here?

(A)   argued that it is impossible to measure “pilot experience”

(B) used an example that does not relate logically to the point being illustrated

(C) provided only a partial explanation for the increase in commuter airline crashes

(D) made an unfair comparison between experience as a flight instructor and experience as a night cargo pilot

(E) not specified how much of the recent increase in commuter airline crashes is due to pilot inexperience

Feb2024 · Answer

KarishmaB 
 IanStewart 
 GMATNinja 
 MartyMurray

Hello Experts! Can you provide your inputs for this question?

I understand that B is a more appropriate choice. What does a flight instructor have to do with an actual plane crash and so, mentioning the experience carried by a flight instructor shan't have any bearing on actual plane crash.

IanStewart · Answer

The question is about the pilots hired by commuter airlines. Presumably a flight instructor, someone who teaches others to fly, would be considered for a pilot job, so I actually find answer B directly relevant to the opening sentence of the argument.

But that actually doesn't even matter. Answer B says that the author has " used an example that does not relate logically to the point being illustrated". So we need to identify just what "point   being illustrated" by the author's example, and we find that point in the sentence just before the example:  It is impossible to define and assess pilot experience, however.  The comparison between the experience of a flight instructor and that of a cargo pilot does illustrate that point, so answer B does not describe an issue in the argument.

Answer A is the much better answer. Paraphrasing the argument in a rather extreme way, it roughly says "I have no idea how to measure how much experience a pilot has, but it is clear to me that pilots with too little experience are causing plane crashes." And if the author can't measure pilot experience, how do we know if today's pilots, when there are more crashes, are less experienced than yesterday's pilots, when there were fewer crashes?

The recent dramatic increase in commuter airline crashes is caused in

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The recent dramatic increase in commuter airline crashes is caused in

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