A research study revealed

Answer choices

1. A

   Correct93% picked this

   Widened and extended roads tend to attract many more motorists than used them

   Why this is right

   If we made the roads 15% bigger, and now there are 20% more people driving on them, the congestion will have gotten worse. This answer gives us an accompanying change, "many more motorists", which certainly has a common sense connection to traffic congestion.

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

   93%
2. B

   No Impact5% picked this

   Typically, road widening or extension projects are undertaken only after the population near the road in question has increased and then leveled off,

   This almost sounds like the "what if there are more people on the road" line of objection, but this answer doesn't say "After the roads were widened, there were more people on the road". Instead, it suggests that the roads weren't widened until after population increase had already leveled off. If population was level, then they widened the roads, and THEN congestion got worse, then we wouldn't be able to explain the worsened congestion by saying "population went up".

   5%
3. C

   Opposite0% picked this

   As a general rule, the greater the number of lanes on a given length of highway, the lower the rate of accidents

   This answer could have worked if it switched "lower" to "greater" and gave us a way to say that now that the roads were widened there were more accidents than before.

   0%
4. D

   Out of Scope: rural0% picked this

   Rural, as compared to urban, traffic usually includes a larger proportion of trucks and vehicles

   The highway was widened near urban areas, so the comparison to rural areas is irrelevant.

   0%
5. E

   Out of Scope Comparison No Impact2% picked this

   Urban traffic generally moves at a slower pace and involves more congestion and delays than

   We only care about highways near urban areas. Moreover, this answer describes a static (constant) truism about different areas. It doesn't connect in any way to the widening of the highway. In order to explain why congestion got worse, we need to be able to say that something else changed when they widened the highway, and this answer gives no ammunition for something else that changed.

   2%