PrepTest 107, Section 1, Question 24
Automobile-emission standards are enforced through annual inspection.(31 more words not shown)
Which one of the following,(19 more words not shown)
- AAs an emission-control(13 more words not shown)
- BThe testing devices(12 more words not shown)
- CThe adjustments needed(23 more words not shown)
- DMost car owners(15 more words not shown)
- EWhen emission standards(9 more words not shown)
Reading the argument
A car sitting still at the inspection station isn't a car driving down the highway. Why assume it produces the same emissions in both situations?
Measuring gases at the tailpipe sounds reasonable. My concern is what the measurement represents. We want to control pollution from cars as people actually use them. If an engine behaves differently while driving, a clean result while idling might give us a misleading picture. Even a perfectly accurate measurement could accurately measure the wrong situation.
What we’re looking for
The question asks what most strongly suggests that the current enforcement method might fail to control overall pollution. I'd look for a difference between passing this stationary test and keeping emissions low on the road. That would connect the weakness in the test to the program's actual goal.
Working the answers
- A
Making technology increasingly effective could become increasingly expensive. Think of a filter where each additional improvement costs more than the previous one. That concerns the price of further improvements, not whether the present inspection method effectively controls emissions. A doesn't establish that the current method is inadequate or that necessary improvements are unaffordable.
- B
Then recalibrate the devices. A need for frequent adjustment isn't evidence that the adjustment goes undone. Technicians might reset a device between every car and get accurate measurements. B would become a concern if we also learned that the required recalibration wasn't happening, but we aren't given that extra fact.
- CCorrect
Getting a car to pass the idling test can make it likely to produce high pollution levels at highway speeds. So the very adjustments encouraged by the inspection can work against the broader purpose of controlling emissions.
This gives us more than a vague possibility that idling differs from driving. It explains how a car can look clean under the test conditions and still pollute heavily when used on the highway. That directly challenges the effectiveness of enforcing standards this way.
- D
Asking a mechanic to make a car comply with the standards doesn't indicate a problem. The mechanic could make legitimate repairs and reduce emissions. We would have to invent dishonesty or manipulation of the test to turn this request into evidence that enforcement is failing. D doesn't supply either.
- E
Holding older cars to the same standards might be inconvenient or seem unfair to their owners. But those are different concerns from controlling pollution. The absence of an exception for older cars doesn't show that the standards or the way they're enforced fail to reduce emissions.
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