PrepTest 119, Section 3, Question 21
Baumgartner's comparison of the environmental hazards of gasoline-powered(55 more words not shown)
Which one of the following(8 more words not shown)
- ABaumgartner makes a(11 more words not shown)
- BThe use of(19 more words not shown)
- CBaumgartner uses inaccurate(13 more words not shown)
- DThe total life(12 more words not shown)
- EThe production of(12 more words not shown)
Reading the argument
What about driving the car? What about disposing of it afterward? Comparing only what happens when cars are manufactured leaves out large parts of their lives.
That is the author's complaint about Baumgartner. To compare the cars' environmental effects, we'd want production, use, and recycling, not just one stage. I can see why the author calls the comparison misleading. Even accurate information about manufacturing could give an incomplete picture of the total impact.
Be careful about what that establishes, though. An incomplete method doesn't prove that Baumgartner reached the opposite of the correct overall result. Someone can arrive at the right answer through poor reasoning. The author criticizes the comparison's scope, then supplies resource-use and pollution figures comparing typical gasoline and electric cars.
What we’re looking for
For the main-conclusion question, the point is the criticism we started with: Baumgartner's comparison is misleading. The life-cycle standard tells us why, and the figures help make the contrast concrete. We aren't looking for a standalone fact about either kind of car.
Working the answers
- ACorrect
This restates the opening criticism: Baumgartner's comparison of the environmental hazards is misleading. Deceptive may initially sound like it requires deliberate dishonesty, but here it describes a comparison that gives a misleading impression. The answer doesn't say Baumgartner knowingly falsified anything.
That fits the argument about leaving out parts of the cars' life cycle. We can accept A without adding a claim about what Baumgartner intended.
- B
The resource comparison contributes to the case, but it isn't the overall claim the author is trying to establish. The argument is aimed at Baumgartner's way of comparing the cars. Reporting a resource-use difference leaves out that criticism.
- C
Incomplete isn't the same as inaccurate. Baumgartner could use perfectly accurate production data while leaving out use and recycling. The author's objection concerns what the comparison includes, not a demonstrated factual error in the data it does include. C substitutes a different criticism.
- D
This is the standard the author uses to assess the comparison. Because total life cycle matters, looking only at production is inadequate. D supplies that reason but leaves out the application to Baumgartner, which is the main point.
- E
We aren't given this production-only comparison. The figures about typical cars don't establish which kind creates more hazards during manufacturing alone. More fundamentally, the author criticizes stopping at production. E would return to that limited stage instead of stating the criticism of the overall analysis.
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