PrepTest 148, Section 4, Question 6
Engineer: Wide roads free of obstructions have been(42 more words not shown)
The engineer's argument can most(11 more words not shown)
- AConditions that create(8 more words not shown)
- BProblems created by(4 more words not shown)
- CTechnical fixes are(2 more words not shown)
- DTechnical fixes cannot(3 more words not shown)
- EThe longer a(7 more words not shown)
Reading the argument
A wide, clear road gives drivers more room to maneuver. It may also make them feel safer taking risks. The engineer asks us to carry that pattern over to global warming: if a technical fix blocks some sunlight, people may feel freer to release carbon dioxide because they believe the warming problem is being handled.
What we’re looking for
That is the connection between two otherwise different situations. More protection can make people less cautious about the behavior creating the risk. The question asks for the principle the engineer is invoking, so I'd look for that relationship between feeling secure and taking chances. We don't have to show that the two cases match in every detail to identify the idea the argument uses.
Working the answers
- ACorrect
Conditions that make people feel secure can encourage them to take risks. The road supplies a sense of driving safety; blocking sunlight supplies a sense of protection from warming. In each case, the engineer predicts that people respond by taking more of the relevant risk, whether through driving behavior or increased emissions.
- B
The argument isn't about whether human-caused problems need human-created solutions. It is about how people respond to a proposed solution. Describing who created the problem or the fix leaves out the behavioral connection that ties the two examples together.
- C
Nothing establishes that the fixes themselves must stop working. A sunlight-blocking measure could keep doing its technical job while people responded by increasing emissions. The engineer's concern is that the response could undermine the benefit, not that every technical fix inevitably expires.
- D
This says no technical fix can discourage risk-taking. The engineer gives a pattern in which added protection encourages risk, but doesn't rule out every other possible effect of every technical solution. D turns the particular concern into a blanket limitation on all technical fixes.
- E
The passage doesn't argue that waiting longer necessarily makes a problem worse. It describes a response to intervention: feeling protected may encourage behavior that creates more risk. The mechanism is people's behavior after the fix, not simply the passage of time without a solution.
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