PrepTest 136, Section 2, Question 10
Computer manufacturers have sought to make computer chips(54 more words not shown)
Which one of the following(8 more words not shown)
- AComputers cannot currently(10 more words not shown)
- BEven if CPU(13 more words not shown)
- CIf both the(17 more words not shown)
- DFew, if any,(10 more words not shown)
- EIncreasing the sophistication(13 more words not shown)
Reading the argument
Shrinking the chip is one way to make a computer faster. Is it the only way? We can accept the technical facts we're given. Making a CPU chip smaller without reducing its sophistication would increase speed, and manufacturers currently can't make it significantly smaller while preserving that sophistication. That blocks the described route to a significant speed increase.
What we’re looking for
It doesn't automatically block every route. What if some other change could improve the computer's speed while the chip stayed the same size? We don't need to know how to build that computer. The argument is the one claiming that significant improvement is currently impossible, so it has to rule out other ways of achieving it. The necessary-assumption answer should close that opening: making the chip smaller must be required for making the computer faster.
Working the answers
- ACorrect
This treats smaller CPU chips as a requirement for faster computers. That is the assumption behind the leap from “we can't use this method” to “we can't achieve this result.” Without that restriction, another method of improving speed could be available even if the stated size-and-sophistication problem remained.
- B
This adds another restriction on making chips smaller, even when some sophistication is sacrificed. But further trouble with shrinking chips doesn't address whether a different route to greater speed is available. It stays inside the method the argument already discusses.
- C
This would tell us what happens if both size and sophistication decrease. It could rule out that particular tradeoff as a way to gain speed, but it still doesn't rule out methods that don't involve shrinking the chip. The argument's central assumption concerns the absence of those other methods.
- D
What manufacturers believe isn't the same as what can currently be done. Most manufacturers could be pessimistic while one discovers a different way to increase speed. Their beliefs aren't the required connection between the technical limitation and the conclusion.
- E
This describes a possible benefit of increasing sophistication while keeping size fixed. If that change were achievable, it could supply the very alternative the argument ignores. The prediction that computers cannot currently be made significantly faster doesn't depend on assuming a speed benefit from this different approach.
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