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Bunuel
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Citizen: at our city's airport, we have invested time and money in 04 Jul 2024, 01:30
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D
Be sure to select an answer first to save it in the Error Log before revealing the correct answer (OA)!

Difficulty:

25% (medium)

Question Stats:

80% (01:48) correct 20% (02:03) wrong based on 191 sessions

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­Citizen: at our city's airport, we have invested time and money in security checkpoints that are a waste of time. We train the staff for the purpose of searching incoming automobiles, but we search fewer than five percent of those automobiles. We might as well disband the security checkpoints. The cost is wasted, and there is ninety-five percent chance that an illegal substance would get through the checkpoint anyway.

Council Member:Even if we grated that those odds didn't justify the costs--which I disagree with--you seem not to recognize that the presence of the checkpoint itself deters some people who would bring in illegal substances from doing so.

The council member responds to the citizens argument by?

A. rejecting the citizen's argument while proposing that the percentage of incoming automobiles that are checked should be raised.

B. casting doubt on whether the citizen has correctly understands the chances that an illegal substance could pass through the checkpoint

C. objecting to the approach the citizen has used to argue against the checkpoints.

D. pointing out a benefit of the system that the citizen has failed to mention.

E. shifting the discussion from the argument at hand to an attack on the personal qualities of the citizen

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D
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Citizen: at our city's airport, we have invested time and money in 04 Jul 2024, 02:24
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­A: rejecting the citizen's argument while proposing that the percentage of incoming automobiles that are checked should be raised. Council Member is not proposing anything. NOT CORRECT

B: casting doubt on whether the citizen has correctly understands the chances that an illegal substance could pass through the checkpoint. Council Member is not questioning the citizen's approach on estimating the chances. NOT CORRECT

C: objecting to the approach the citizen has used to argue against the checkpoints. Not objecting the citizen's approach. NOT CORRECT

D: pointing out a benefit of the system that the citizen has failed to mention.
Council Member points out the benefit of checkpoint which the citizen fails to mention in his argument. CORRECT

E: shifting the discussion from the argument at hand to an attack on the personal qualities of the citizen. No personal qualities of the citizen mentioned. NOT CORRECT
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Citizen: at our city's airport, we have invested time and money in 05 Jul 2024, 00:44
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­Citizen: at our city's airport, we have invested time and money in security checkpoints that are a waste of time. We train the staff for the purpose of searching incoming automobiles, but we search fewer than five percent of those automobiles. We might as well disband the security checkpoints. The cost is wasted, and there is ninety-five percent chance that an illegal substance would get through the checkpoint anyway.

Council Member:Even if we grated that those odds didn't justify the costs--which I disagree with--you seem not to recognize that the presence of the checkpoint itself deters some people who would bring in illegal substances from doing so.

The council member responds to the citizens argument by?

A. rejecting the citizen's argument while proposing that the percentage of incoming automobiles that are checked should be raised.

B. casting doubt on whether the citizen has correctly understands the chances that an illegal substance could pass through the checkpoint

C. objecting to the approach the citizen has used to argue against the checkpoints.

D. pointing out a benefit of the system that the citizen has failed to mention.

E. shifting the discussion from the argument at hand to an attack on the personal qualities of the citizen

​​​​​​​
­
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Answer: D

Option C is next best tempting answer choice since the council member did mention at first that he did not agree with the citizen reasoning. However this is not how he responded to the citizens argument. He responded simply by pointing out other benefits thst the citizen might not even think of

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Citizen: at our city's airport, we have invested time and money in 03 Aug 2024, 08:30
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­Citizen: at our city's airport, we have invested time and money in security checkpoints that are a waste of time. We train the staff for the purpose of searching incoming automobiles, but we search fewer than five percent of those automobiles. We might as well disband the security checkpoints. The cost is wasted, and there is ninety-five percent chance that an illegal substance would get through the checkpoint anyway.

Council Member:Even if we grated that those odds didn't justify the costs--which I disagree with--you seem not to recognize that the presence of the checkpoint itself deters some people who would bring in illegal substances from doing so.

The council member responds to the citizens argument by?

A. rejecting the citizen's argument while proposing that the percentage of incoming automobiles that are checked should be raised.

B. casting doubt on whether the citizen has correctly understands the chances that an illegal substance could pass through the checkpoint

C. objecting to the approach the citizen has used to argue against the checkpoints.

D. pointing out a benefit of the system that the citizen has failed to mention.

E. shifting the discussion from the argument at hand to an attack on the personal qualities of the citizen­
Show more
­

OFFICIAL EXPLANATION:



Reading the question: the citizen makes a fairly thin argument, and the council member makes a good point in response. We're asked how the council member responds. We can see at a glance that the answer choices are of the general, logical type. It's often worth glancing at the answer choices to check their format, though you want to construct a filter before evaluating them. To match the answer choices, we'll make a general, logical prediction of the answer.

Creating a filter: we can make the following prediction of the correct answer. The citizen is assessing the value of this security program too narrowly, and the council member points out a benefit of the program the citizen hadn't considered. That's the filter: "benefit overlooked."

Applying the filter: Do any answer choices fit our prediction? Choice (A) is far off from our prediction. Choice (B) misses the main thrust of pointing out a benefit the citizen hadn't considered. And the council member says, "even if we granted that those odds didn't justify the costs," so with his main point he is specifically not arguing about the odds, as (B) indicates. Choice (C) and (E) are far off from our prediction. Choice (D) is close to our prediction, so we are left with (D).

Logical proof: we generally can't make a logical proof of our answer to a logical continuation question, but we can confirm our answer, in this case, by mapping the generalities of the answer choice back to specifics in the prompt. The council member definitely "defends the current system," and he does "point out a benefit of the system that the citizen has failed to mention"--it's that the mere presence of the checkpoint deters some people who might not have been caught.

The correct answer is (D).
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