Q13 - Adam: Marking road edges with reflecting

[onguyen228]

I was down to (C) and (D), but ultimately chose (D).

I thought by Aiesha's comparison between roads with reflecting posts and roads without, that she is implying that the driver's view of the road is not relevant to the number of road accidents. I think I might have overthought this question. She never denied that they were relevant or not, and she might even think it is relevant. I think the reason I didn't pick (C) is because of the wording of the answer choice.

Any insight into this question would be appreciated.
Thanks!

[rinagoldfield]

Thanks for your post, onguyen228 ! I can see how the wording of (C) is confusing. Let’s boil down the arguments here.

Adam: Reflectors enable safer driving. Therefore reflectors will decrease accidents.
Aiesha: People actually drive more dangerously on roads with reflectors.

Adam’s statement follows the classic “premise therefore conclusion” form. Let’s think for a minute about the gap between Adam’s premise and conclusion. Adam assumes that something that enables safe driving will actually decrease accidents.

What does Aiesha disagree with? She doesn’t disagree with Adam’s premise, that reflectors enable safe driving. Rather, she disagrees about reflectors’ actual, practical consequences. In other words, she takes issue with his assumption that something that enables safe driving will, in reality, facilitate safe driving.

(C) matches this point of disagreement.

Remember that these ID disagreement questions often contain premises, conclusions, and assumptions, just like other assumption questions. Identifying those assumptions can help clarify the disagreement.

(D) is incorrect because Aiesha does not question the relevance of reflectors. She questions their effects. She suggests reflectors are correlated with negative effects. Negative effects are relevant!

[BensonC202]

Thank you for the detailed explain.

However, how about ( E ) ?

Providing additional evidence ( Referring to the driving behaviors ) to undermine the claim that safer driving ( reflecting post ) does not necessarily reduce the number of road accidents.

It seems... legit to me...