automobile accident

NSNguyen · Posted: Sun Jul 06, 2008 5:35 am Post subject: automobile accident

Studies of fatal automobile accidents reveal that, in the majority of cases in which one occupant of an automobile is killed while another survives, it is the passenger, not the driver, who is killed. It is ironic that the innocent passenger should suffer for the driver’s carelessness, while the driver often suffers only minor injuries or none at all.
Which of the following is an assumption underlying the reasoning in the passage above?
(A) In most fatal automobile accidents, the driver of a car in which an occupant is killed is at fault.
(B) Drivers of automobiles are rarely killed in auto accidents.
(C) Most deaths in fatal automobile accidents are suffered by occupants of cars rather than by pedestrians.
(D) Auto safety experts should increase their efforts to provide protection for those in the passenger seats of automobiles.
(E) Automobile passengers sometimes play a contributing role in causing auto accidents.

svaradhan · Posted: Sun Jul 06, 2008 6:05 am Post subject:

Hi , by process of elimination we will be left with options A & B. Let us perform denial test on A & B to find out the right assumption for the reasoning in the argument.

Reasoning - Driver's careless ness leads to fatal accidents and occupants are killed.

Option A states that "In most fatal automobile accidents, the driver of a car in which an occupant is killed is at fault.". If we perform denial test on this, it implies that the driver of the car is not at fault. It weakens the reasoning provided. Hence, it is the right assumption.

Option B states that "Drivers of automobiles are rarely killed in auto accidents." Denial test on this option implies that drivers are mostly killed in auto accidents. It has no bearing on the resoning above and hence, cannot be the right assumption.

Is A the correct answer?

nitin86 · Posted: Sun Jul 06, 2008 6:41 am Post subject: Re: automobile accident