Essayist: Some researchers criticize British

Answer choices

1. A

   Weak Impact3% picked this

   The British government is generally not forthcoming with

   This seems to corroborate our current story: the British government have secure information about aliens and they're not being forthcoming with it! But it's just saying that the British government would usually be evasive about sharing information, if it's secure information. There are too many types of secure information that a government keeps for us to take this answer and think it tells us anything specifically about extraterrestrial spacecraft.

   3%
2. B

   Correct62% picked this

   The British government would withhold information pertaining to UFOs only if it were established that they

   Why this is right

   This is a conditional, which is weird for Strengthen / Weaken answers. Typically, when they give us conditional answers on those question types, the answer has no impact because we aren't sure whether the conditional's trigger is met. "Only if" = Right side, necessary So this rule would look like this IF British govt THEN the UFOs withholds info ? are known to be pertaining to UFOs from other planets Do we know if this rule is triggered? Yes! The British government is withholding info (brushing requests for info aside) regarding UFO sightings by their military and intelligence agencies. Since the rule is triggered, we know then that it has been established that these UFOs are from other planets. Does that do anything to help the argument? Yes! Even though most of us probably hear "UFO" and immediately think about aliens, the term doesn't necessarily mean aliens. It just means, "there's something in the sky and we're not sure what it is". It might be an animal. It might be a satellite. It might be a new type of ship from some other country's military. It might be a spaceship from another planet. This answer strengthens by ruling out all these alternative explanations for what the UFO might be. The conclusion is specifically saying that these UFO's are extraterrestrial spacecraft, and this answer all but proves that!

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

   62%
3. C

   Weak Impact31% picked this

   The British government would deny the requests by civilian researchers to have access to the data only if this

   This is similar to (B) in the sense that it gives us a conditional that we know is triggered by the government's unwillingness to honor requests for information. It's similar to (A) in the sense that the outcome we get from that triggered conditional is that, "The British government definitely has something to hide". In (A), we were thinking, "Okay, so they are probably hiding secure information." But just like (A), this answer is too unspecific to have much impact. Just because this tells us that the British government has something to hide doesn't mean that what they're hiding is discovery of alien spacecraft. They might have intelligence that tells them that these UFOs they've been spotting are a revolutionary new aircraft designed by the US military. The British government might have reasons to hide knowledge that such technology exists or that they're aware of it. When we compare the strengthening effect of (C) to (B), (B) is getting us much closer to the doorstep of the conclusion by guaranteeing that the thing the Brits are hiding is an alien spaceship.

   31%
4. D

   No Impact1% picked this

   The British government is less trusting of civilian researchers than it is

   Whether they're less trusting of civilians or just interested in keeping proprietary secrets within the military community doesn't matter. This answer gets us nowhere closer to assuming that these UFOs are alien spacecraft. The UFO's might be part of some new military technology that other countries have, and the government strategically wants to keep that a secret from civilian researchers.

   1%
5. E

   No Impact3% picked this

   The British government has always attempted to deny the existence

   This reinforces that the British government is hiding something / denying the existence of something / protecting secure information / depriving civilian researchers of knowing something. But just like the other wrong answers, this answer doesn't provide any nudge in favor of these UFOs being alien spacecraft, as opposed to some other form of UFO, such as a new military technology being tested by another nation.

   3%