Critical Reasoning

Editorial: The mayor plans to deactivate the city's fire alarm boxes, because most calls received from them are false alarms. The mayor claims that the alarm boxes are no longer necessary, since
most people now have access to either public or private telephone. But the city's commercial
district, where there is the greatest risk of fire, has few residents and few public telephones, so
some alarm boxes are still necessary.

Which of the following, if true, most seriously weakens the editorial's argument?
a) Maintaining the fire alarm boxes costs the city more than five million dollars annually.
b) Commercial buildings have automatic fire alarm systems that are linked directly to the fire department
c) The fire department gets less information from an alarm box than it does from a telephone call.
d) The city's fire department is located much closer to the residential areas than to the commercial district.
e) On average, almost 25 percent of the public telephones in the city are out of order.
OA. B.

When fire is reported directly then there is NO NEED to fire alarm boxes. Therefore B.

B gives the alternate reason and hence the OA.

Amit, can you please expand your point. thx

How do we know that a fire alarm system is different from a fire alarm box . )

Answer choice B weakens the conclusion of the editorial's argument that some fire alarm boxes are necessary by stating that Commercial buildings have automatic fire alarm systems that are linked directly to the fire department thereby making those alarm boxes redundant

sl750, thanks. Before we hear back from Amit, can i request you to explain how B gives the alternate reason, in case you know.

rishijhawar wrote:sl750, thanks. Before we hear back from Amit, can i request you to explain how B gives the alternate reason, in case you know.

knowing that there is something called alarm systems that are privately sponsored and different from the alarm boxes mentioned in the stimulus is the key to this cr .