Critical Reasoning

News commentator: "Our police commissioner announced a plan to dismantle manned surveillance video cameras throughout the city, because most man-hours spent observing them end up wasted because no crimes occur there. Most residents now have cell phones or access to public phones, so video cameras are no longer needed, says the police commissioner. However, the biggest risk of crime is in the Warehouse District, where there are not many residents or public phones, so some video cameras are still needed."

Which of the following, if true, most seriously weakens the argument?
A. It costs over five million dollars annually for the city to pay policemen to monitor video cameras.
B. Warehouses have automatic motion-detecting video cameras, which send an alarm to the police department.
C. Due to most video cameras' limited scope and quality, the police will receive less information from video cameras than from phone calls.
D. The police department is much nearer to residential areas than to the warehouse areas.
E. An average of one in five public phones does not work.

OA Later

[spoiler]IMO B

Since the warehouse has the auto detection cameras there is no need to installing cameras there.[/spoiler]

I think the answer should be C.

Since it is talking about the limited capabilities of the video camera, it weakens the argument that video cameras are a necessity in the warehouses.

On the other hand option B highlights the usefulness of video camera, in turn supporting the argument in the question.

Let me know your thoughts on it.

kvcpk wrote:News commentator: "Our police commissioner announced a plan to dismantle manned surveillance video cameras throughout the city, because most man-hours spent observing them end up wasted because no crimes occur there. Most residents now have cell phones or access to public phones, so video cameras are no longer needed, says the police commissioner. However, the biggest risk of crime is in the Warehouse District, where there are not many residents or public phones, so some video cameras are still needed."

Which of the following, if true, most seriously weakens the argument?
A. It costs over five million dollars annually for the city to pay policemen to monitor video cameras.
B. Warehouses have automatic motion-detecting video cameras, which send an alarm to the police department.
C. Due to most video cameras' limited scope and quality, the police will receive less information from video cameras than from phone calls.
D. The police department is much nearer to residential areas than to the warehouse areas.
E. An average of one in five public phones does not work.

OA Later

B?

OA B

Missed the manned surveillance part. Yes, the answer should be B.

What is the source of this problem?

My question to the BTG community is : are questions like these even helpful or useful? This is the worst revision I have ever seen of an official problem. Check out OG 12 CR #109

ssp wrote:What is the source of this problem?

My question to the BTG community is : are questions like these even helpful or useful? This is the worst revision I have ever seen of an official problem. Check out OG 12 CR #109

Source is Grockit. Grockit has paraphrased versions of Official Questions. This could have been one of those.

Hmm...I see!