Critical Reasoning

Editorial: The government claims that the country's nuclear power plants are entirely safe and hence that the public's fear of nuclear accidents at these plants is groundless. The government also contends that its recent action to limit the nuclear industry's financial liability in the case of nuclear accidents at power plant is justified by the need to protect the nuclear industry from the threat of bankruptcy. But even the government says that unlimited liability poses such a threat only if injury claims can be sustained against the industry; and the government admits that for such claims to be sustained, injury must result from a nuclear accident. The public's fear, therefore, is well founded.

1. If all of the statements offered in the support of editorial's conclusion correctly describe the government's position, which one of the following must also be true on the basis of those statements?

A. The government's claim about the safety of the country's nuclear power plants is false.
B. The government's position on nuclear power plants is inconsistent
C. The government misrepresented its reason for acting to limit the nuclear industry's liability
D. Unlimited financial liability in the case of nuclear accidents poses no threat to the financial security of the country's nuclear industry
E. The only serious threat posed by a nuclear accident would be to the financial security of the nuclear industry

2. Which one of the following principles, if valid, most helps to justify the editorial's argumentations?
A. If the government claims that something is unsafe then, in the absence of overwhelming evidence to the contrary, that thing should be assumed to be unsafe
B. Fear that certain kind of event will occur is well founded if those who have control over the occurrence of events of that kind stand to benefit financially from such an occurrence
C. If a potentially dangerous thing is safe only because the financial security of those responsible for its operation depends on its being safe, then eliminating that dependence is not in the best interests of the public
D. The government sometimes makes unsupported claims about what situations will arise, but it does not act to prevent a certain kind of situation from arising unless there is a real danger that such a situation will arise
E. If a real financial threat to a major industry exists, then government action to limit that threat is justified


Source: LSAT PrepTests