Logical Reasoning

PT107 · S4 · Q13 The point about which the supervisor

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Plant Manager: We could greatly reduce the amount of sulfur dioxide our copper-smelting plant releases into the atmosphere by using a new process.

Evaluate

Often I would go claim-by-claim through the first person's paragraph, trying to figure out whether the second person seemed to disagree. But in this case, the Supervisor's paragraph is pretty explicit about where the disagreement is.

Supervisor: the latest closed furnaces are extremely fuel-efficient

So, what comment did the Plant Manager make about "latest closed furnaces" that sounds like, "the latest closed furnaces are not extremely fuel-efficient"?

The only negative complaint about the new closed furnaces that relates to fuel-efficiency is this one:

Plant Manager: the new process costs more to run than the current process

Goal

Look for an answer saying, , or, interchangeably, an answer saying, .

13.

The point about which the supervisor expresses disagreement with the plant manager is

  1. Whether the new copper-smelting process

    Unrelated to Goal: sulfur dioxide

    They aren't disagreeing about what fumes are / aren't emitted. It's just about fuel-efficiency / cost.

    2% picked this

  2. Correct

    Whether the new copper-smelting process

    Why this is right

    Here we have our match. The supervisor said, "I disagree about one point you make, because the new process is extremely fuel-efficient." This objection could only match up with the plant manager's comment that the new process costs more to run than the current one.

    Skill tested: Agree/Disagree · how this choice captures the argument's function is the move to repeat next time.

    60% picked this

  3. Whether the new process should

    Potentially Agree

    We could probably assume that Person 1 would disagree with this and say, "no, since this will cost us much but bring us no profit, we should not adopt it", but how the supervisor feels about this is a mystery. If anything, her conclusion that "I agree with your overall conclusion" makes it seem like she potentially would agree with the Plant Manager in this case.

    2% picked this

  4. Whether closed copper-smelting furnaces are

    Relative vs. Absolute

    This is extremely tempting, since it's basically the other phrasing we were thinking of for the disagreement. However, there's a difference between saying "X is extremely fuel-efficient" and saying "X is more fuel-efficient than Y". The supervisor didn't say that the new ones were more efficient than the old ones; maybe the old ones are also extremely fuel-efficient. And the plant manager only talks about the cost of running one vs. the other, so it's a little harder to know whether he is referring specifically to lower fuel-efficiency driving up the cost, as opposed to whether the extra step of reheating the cooled copper is driving up the cost.

    25% picked this

  5. Whether cooling and reheating the

    Out of Scope Person 2

    Person 2 doesn't get specific enough for us to know how she would feel about cooling/reheating vs. moving it molten form.

    11% picked this

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