Computer manufacturers have sought

Answer choices

1. A

   Correct74% picked this

   Computers cannot currently be made faster unless their CPU chips are

   Why this is right

   If you didn't predict the assumption that "making CPU smaller is the only way to make computers faster", then you would deal with this the way we can deal with any conditional answer choice: write out how the rule would look and ask yourself if the author made that move. Unless = "if not", so this answer says CPU chips Computers cannot are not ? currently be made made smaller faster If that rule seems to match the argument core, then pick it. Here, the author definitely went from a premise about CPU chips not being able to be made smaller to a conclusion about computers not being able to be made faster.

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

   74%
2. B

   Too Strong3% picked this

   Even if CPU chips are made slightly less sophisticated, they cannot currently be

   The author is only claiming that the chips can't be made smaller without decreasing sophistication. She might totally agree that they can currently be made much smaller, as long as we decrease their sophistication.

   3%
3. C

   Out of Scope17% picked this

   If both the size and the sophistication of a CPU chip are decreased, the speed of

   Out of Scope: decreasing size and sophistication The author never covered what would happen if both the size and the sophistication of a chip were decreased. Presumably, the overall effect on the speed of the chip would depend on how much we decreased the size vs. sophistication. If we decreased them both proportionately, the speed might be unchanged.

   17%
4. D

   Out of Scope: what manufacturers believe1% picked this

   Few, if any, computer manufacturers believe that computers can be made

   This argument is about whether computers currently can / can't be made significantly faster. The truth of that proposition has nothing to do with what quantity of manufacturers believe it to be true.

   1%
5. E

   Weakens6% picked this

   Increasing the sophistication of a CPU chip without increasing its size will proportionally

   This actually poses an alternative way to make computers faster, so this weakens the author's argument; she is assuming that making CPU chips smaller (but equally sophisticated) is the only way.

   6%