Stan: A fairly recent communications development allows people to use

Question

Stan: A fairly recent communications development allows people to use Internet connections as their phone lines at home. In the very near future, this form of land line will completely replace the existing telephone lines.

Heather: I think that even though fewer people may end up using the traditional land line setup, it will not be replaced completely anytime soon.

Which of the following, if true, most strengthens Heather's objection to Stan's claim?

A. Phone lines wired through Internet connections are generally much cheaper than those supplied by traditional telephone cable companies.

B. The home cellular phone lines have a better chance of replacing the traditional landline than the Internet phones.

C. Research has shown that when there is a dominant provider of communication services in any given area, a monopoly is formed, and other providers tend to be assimilated by that monopoly.

D. Phone lines that are wired as Internet connections are less reliable than telephone cable lines, and can sometimes distort speech or disconnect.

E. Almost all of the current telephone devices have the capability of functioning with an Internet-based phone line.

Bunuel · Accepted Answer

OFFICIAL EXPLANATION

Stan: A fairly recent communications development allows people to use Internet connections as their phone lines at home. In the very near future, this form of land line will completely replace the existing telephone lines.

Heather: I think that even though fewer people may end up using the traditional land line setup, it will not be replaced completely anytime soon.

Which of the following, if true, most strengthens Heather's objection to Stan's claim?

A. Phone lines wired through Internet connections are generally much cheaper than those supplied by traditional telephone cable companies.

Incorrect.

This is a Conclusion Strengthening question in the Dialog format. You are asked to choose the answer choice which strengthens Heather's objection (or weakens the Stan's position):

This answer choice indirectly weakens Heather's viewpoint by strengthening Stan's. The fact that the internet phone lines are cheaper than the regular phone lines only leads us to believe that they have a good chance of replacing them. However, we're supposed to be supporting Heather's claim that this will not happen.

B. The home cellular phone lines have a better chance of replacing the traditional landline than the Internet phones.

Incorrect.

This answer choice presents data that is out of the scope of the argument. The comparison being discussed is between regular phone lines and Internet connection phone lines. Since no mention is made of the home cellular phone industry, any statement about it is irrelevant to our task of supporting Heather's claim that the traditional phone lines will remain in use.

C. Research has shown that when there is a dominant provider of communication services in any given area, a monopoly is formed, and other providers tend to be assimilated by that monopoly.

Incorrect.

This answer choice indirectly weakens Heather's position by strengthening Stan's. It states that in the future, the dominant service providers - Internet phones providers - will likely become a monopoly and assimilate the weaker providers, or those with less users - traditional phone providers. This supports Stan's position that the traditional land line will be replaced.

Alternately, it can be claimed that the monopoly provider may use both methods; in this case this answer choice neither weakens not strengthens Heather's position as it does not provide enough information to establish which scenario is more likely.

D. Phone lines that are wired as Internet connections are less reliable than telephone cable lines, and can sometimes distort speech or disconnect.

This answer choice indirectly strengthens Heather's claim. It does so by presenting a negative aspect of phones that use Internet connections. After reading a statement about how such phone lines may distort speech or disconnect we are led to believe that it is less likely that they will completely replace existing lines.

E. Almost all of the current telephone devices have the capability of functioning with an Internet-based phone line.

Incorrect.

This is a Conclusion Strengthening question in the Dialog format. You are asked to choose the answer choice which strengthens Heather's objection (or weakens the Stan's position):

This answer choice indirectly weakens Heather's claim. It does so by providing a reason why a transition from the traditional phone lines to the Internet ones will be easy - the phones themselves all work with Internet connections. Remember, you should be looking for a statement that either supports Heather's claim or weakens Stan's.

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praveen27sinha · Answer

Stan: A fairly recent communications development allows people to use Internet connections as their phone lines at home. In the very near future, this form of land line will completely replace the existing telephone lines.

Heather: I think that even though fewer people may end up using the traditional land line setup, it will not be replaced completely anytime soon.

Which of the following, if true, most strengthens Heather's objection to Stan's claim?

A. Phone lines wired through Internet connections are generally much cheaper than those supplied by traditional telephone cable companies.:-   Cost is not the factor for people to switch to new device

B. The home cellular phone lines have a better chance of replacing the traditional landline than the Internet phones. Better chance can not guarantee that old line will get replaced or will stay

C. Research has shown that when there is a dominant provider of communication services in any given area, a monopoly is formed, and other providers tend to be assimilated by that monopoly.

D. Phone lines that are wired as Internet connections are less reliable than telephone cable lines, and can sometimes distort speech or disconnect. Nothing is being mentioned about reliability

E. Almost all of the current telephone devices have the capability of functioning with an Internet-based phone line.  This will not strengthen the claim

AkashM · Answer

praveen27sinha , you have misread the question.

For Heather's claim to make sense we must ask the question, what would make some people still choose traditional land lines over phone lines with internet connections. Option D gives us that reason, hence is the correct answer.

Sumi1010 · Answer

Heather's conclusion  - Telephone lines will not be replaced completely anytime soon, even if recent developments allow to use Internet connections as the phone lines.

Prethink -  
To support this conclusion - We need to say something positive about Telephone lines that is not there in Internet connection lines.

Now, the choices -
A. Phone lines wired through Internet connections are generally  much cheaper  than those supplied by traditional telephone cable companies.
 Talks positive about Internet connection lines. 
B. The home cellular phone lines have a better chance of replacing the  traditional landline  than the Internet phones.
 Not scoped in this argument. 
C. Research has shown that when there is a dominant provider of communication services in any given area, a monopoly is formed, and other providers tend to be assimilated by that monopoly.
 The monopoly may be the determiner, but we don't know if the monopoly is for telephone line or Internet connection lines. 
D. Phone lines that are wired as  Internet connections are less reliable than telephone cable  lines, and can sometimes distort speech or disconnect.
 Talks positive about the telephone lines and an advantage over Internet connection lines. Correct. 
E.  Almost all  of the current telephone devices have the capability of functioning with an Internet-based phone line.
 Does not impact the argument. Neutral comment.

IMO  D

TarunKumar1234 · Answer

Which of the following, if true, most strengthens Heather's objection to Stan's claim?

A. Phone lines wired through Internet connections are generally much cheaper than those supplied by traditional telephone cable companies. -> It will support Stan, not Heather. Incorrect.

B. The home cellular phone lines have a better chance of replacing the traditional landline than the Internet phones. -> It is also not supporting Heather's claim. Incorrect.

C. Research has shown that when there is a dominant provider of communication services in any given area, a monopoly is formed, and other providers tend to be assimilated by that monopoly. -> It doesn't answer why Heather is correct. Incorrect.

D. Phone lines that are wired as Internet connections are less reliable than telephone cable lines, and can sometimes distort speech or disconnect. -> Now, Heather is correct. Let's keep it.

E. Almost all of the current telephone devices have the capability of functioning with an Internet-based phone line. -> It will strengthen Stan's position. Incorrect.

So, I think D.

sumitkrocks · Answer

A. Phone lines wired through Internet connections are generally much cheaper than those supplied by traditional telephone cable companies. 
Weakens the argument

B. The home cellular phone lines have a better chance of replacing the traditional landline than the Internet phones. 
Irrelevant

C. Research has shown that when there is a dominant provider of communication services in any given area, a monopoly is formed, and other providers tend to be assimilated by that monopoly. 
Irrelevant

D. Phone lines that are wired as Internet connections are less reliable than telephone cable lines, and can sometimes distort speech or disconnect. 
This is the reason that few of telephone cable lines will always stay

E. Almost all of the current telephone devices have the capability of functioning with an Internet-based phone line. 
It is out of scope we are discussing about internet lies acting as landlines

VerbalBot · Answer

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Stan: A fairly recent communications development allows people to use

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