PrepTest 147, Section 1, Question 5
Recently, many traffic lights and street markings were(50 more words not shown)
Which one of the following,(11 more words not shown)
- APeople often disregard(5 more words not shown)
- BThe lack of(11 more words not shown)
- CMost drivers were(11 more words not shown)
- DTraffic lights and(14 more words not shown)
- EDrivers were given(12 more words not shown)
Reading the argument
Taking away traffic lights and street markings on a busy street sounds like a good way to cause crashes. Drivers might disagree about who has the right of way or fail to anticipate where another car is going. So why did accidents fall when the amount of traffic stayed the same?
To resolve the conflict, one possibility is that the old markings were confusing. If drivers were getting contradictory directions, removing those directions could help.
What we’re looking for
Or maybe the lack of clear signals makes people nervous enough to drive more carefully. When you see another car approaching an intersection without a signal telling you what to do, you might slow down and pay much closer attention.
Working the answers
- A
Disregarding lights and markings could explain why some accidents occurred while those controls were in place. But why would accidents decrease after the controls were removed? If people were ignoring them before, simply taking them away doesn't tell us what made driving safer. This needs another step, such as a change in how carefully people drove.
- BCorrect
This matches the extra-caution possibility. Without the familiar signals and markings, drivers became more careful. They could slow down, look for other cars, and make sure an intersection is clear instead of relying on a light to tell them it's safe to go. That change in behavior explains how removing the controls could lead to fewer accidents even with just as much traffic.
- C
Not knowing that the controls had been removed doesn't explain why drivers had fewer accidents. Someone could be unaware of the change and drive exactly as before, or be surprised by the missing controls. We need a reason the resulting behavior would make the street safer; this answer doesn't provide one.
- D
The controls can serve other purposes and still affect safety. Perhaps a light helps organize the flow of cars as well as prevent collisions. But knowing there are additional intended benefits doesn't tell us why accidents dropped when the controls disappeared. Our puzzle concerns the actual safety result, not whether safety was the only goal.
- E
Advance notice could make the change less surprising, but knowing about it is different from driving more safely because of it. Drivers could receive a warning and still make the same mistakes at intersections. This becomes helpful only if we add a response such as extra caution. B supplies that response directly, while E only says the notice was given.
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