JCLEONES wrote:
Airline: Newly developed collision-avoidance systems, although not fully tested to discover potential malfunctions, must be installed immediately in passenger planes. Their mechanical warnings enable pilots to avoid crashes.
Pilots: Pilots will not fly in planes with collision-avoidance systems that are not fully tested. Malfunctioning systems could mislead pilots, causing crashes.
The pilots’ objection is most strengthened if which of the following is true?
(A) It is always possible for mechanical devices to malfunction.
(B) Jet engines, although not fully tested when first put into use, have achieved exemplary performance and safety records.
(C) Although collision-avoidance systems will enable pilots to avoid some crashes, the likely malfunctions of the not-fully-tested systems will cause even more crashes.
(D) Many airline collisions are caused in part by the exhaustion of overworked pilots.
(E) Collision-avoidance systems, at this stage of development, appear to have worked better in passenger planes than in cargo planes during experimental flights made over a six-month period.
Choice C states that what the pilots think could happen is likely to happen. Thus, C is the best answer.
Choice A is inappropriate because it says nothing about the malfunctions that most concern the pilots – those that might mislead. Nor does A distinguish tested from not-fully-tested systems. Choice B is inappropriate. The only outcome of using insufficiently tested equipment that might strengthen the pilots’ objection is an unfavorable one, but B reports on a favorable outcome. Choice D is inappropriate because it mentions a problem that needs to be addressed whether or not the collision-avoidance systems are installed immediately. Choice E is inappropriate because it provides no evidence that any malfunctions were of a sort to mislead pilots and cause crashes.
I would like to add to the explanations of option A.
Pilot's reasoning is based on causality [ A ( malfunctioning) causes B (crashes)]
Now, for any causality A causes B, any option that strengthens the cause or effect alone is usually wrong.
For example:
Sleepless nights cause headaches in the morning.
This claim is not strengthened by this option:
I had a sleepless night. ( it's just a statement)
OR by
I have a headache this morning.
But if I say,
last night I did not get sleep, and I feel my head is aching today.
This option stregnthens our argument now.
Hope this explanation helps. This is as generic as it gets. It's true for any causal relationship.
Regards,
Rishav