Critical Reasoning

Intense hurricanes only rarely strike large cruise ships at sea, since the ships' motility and weather-tracking abilities generally allow them to avoid hurricanes.

The performance of an automated navigation system in unexpected situations cannot be predicted.

Which of the following conclusions can most properly be drawn, if the statements above are true, about an automated navigation system on a cruise ship caught in a major hurricane?

A. At some point during its life, a cruise ship's automated navigation system would react inappropriately and might cause the loss of the ship.
B. The navigation system would be destroyed in a major hurricane.
C. The navigation system cannot distinguish between a major hurricane and a minor storm.
D. Whether the navigation system would perform as expected during a storm would depend on the strength of the storm.
E. The system's performance in the hurricane is uncertain, if the system's designers did not anticipate that the ships using the system would ever be in such a strong storm.

A. At some point during its life, a cruise ship's automated navigation system would react inappropriately and might cause the loss of the ship.

The prompt discusses what happens in unexpected situations, and not all cruise ships will experience unexpected situations. Further, the prompt says that the performance cannot be predicted rather than that one can predict that a system will react inappropriately.

B. The navigation system would be destroyed in a major hurricane.

This is not supported. Performance rather than durability is discussed.

C. The navigation system cannot distinguish between a major hurricane and a minor storm.

Any weather analysis capabilities of the navigation system are not discussed.

D. Whether the navigation system would perform as expected during a storm would depend on the strength of the storm.

This is interesting. The prompt discusses the rarity of intense hurricanes striking ships, making such situations seem to be unexpected, and the second part of the prompt discusses what happens in unexpected situations.

However, this answer choice implies that one can predict that the system will not perform as expected in certain situations, whereas the prompt says that the performance cannot be predicted.

E. The system's performance in the hurricane is uncertain, if the system's designers did not anticipate that the ships using the system would ever be in such a strong storm.

This is supported by the prompt, which says that the system's performance is unpredictable in unexpected situations, i.e. situations that the designers did not anticipate when they designed the system.

So the correct answer is E.

Mechmeera wrote:Intense hurricanes only rarely strike large cruise ships at sea, since the ships' motility and weather-tracking abilities generally allow them to avoid hurricanes.

The performance of an automated navigation system in unexpected situations cannot be predicted.

Which of the following conclusions can most properly be drawn, if the statements above are true, about an automated navigation system on a cruise ship caught in a major hurricane?

A. At some point during its life, a cruise ship's automated navigation system would react inappropriately and might cause the loss of the ship.
B. The navigation system would be destroyed in a major hurricane.
C. The navigation system cannot distinguish between a major hurricane and a minor storm.
D. Whether the navigation system would perform as expected during a storm would depend on the strength of the storm.
E. The system's performance in the hurricane is uncertain, if the system's designers did not anticipate that the ships using the system would ever be in such a strong storm.

And note that E is almost a perfect paraphrase of the last sentence in the prompt.

Paraphrased portions are in red and blue respectively:

The performance of an automated navigation system in unexpected situations cannot be predicted.
The system's performance in the hurricane is uncertain, if the system's designers did not anticipate that the ships using the system would ever be in such a strong storm

The performance of an automated navigation system in unexpected situations cannot be predicted
The system's performance in the hurricane is uncertain, if the system's designers did not anticipate that the ships using the system would ever be in such a strong storm