Editorial: The legislature is considering

Answer choices

1. A

   No Impact1% picked this

   The Cape Simmons Nature Preserve is one of the few areas of pristine wilderness

   This answer might give us more reason to want to protect Cape Simmons from environmental damage, but it doesn't do anything to make us increasingly think that allowing oil drilling would cause environmental damage. This answer isn't saying anything bad about oil drilling. It isn't strengthening the similarities between the Alphin Bay oil drilling and the proposed oil drilling at Cape Simmons.

   1%
2. B

   Weakens, if anything3% picked this

   The companies drilling for oil at Alphin Bay never claimed that drilling there would not

   This answer points out a distinction between the Alphin Bay situation and the Cape Simmons situation. That's the opposite of what we're trying to do.

   3%
3. C

   No Impact3% picked this

   The editorialist believes that oil drilling should not be allowed in a nature preserve unless it would

   This answer might give us more backstory into the motivations of why the Editorialist is saying what she's saying, but it doesn't do anything to make us increasingly think that allowing oil drilling would cause environmental damage. This answer isn't saying anything bad about oil drilling. It isn't strengthening the similarities between the Alphin Bay oil drilling and the proposed oil drilling at Cape Simmons. It's just telling us a fact about the speaker (p.s. we've never, or maybe almost never, seen this before or since in an answer choice. we don't care who these speakers are. we only care about the logical content of their ideas).

   3%
4. D

   Correct92% picked this

   There have been no significant changes in oil drilling methods in the

   Why this is right

   This answer strengthens the similarities between the Alphin Bay oil drilling and the proposed oil drilling at Cape Simmons. It's probably easier to understand this answer as Strengthening by Ruling Out an Objection. A skeptic might have heard this author's argument and said, "Sure, the oil drilling at Alphin Bay five years ago led to some environmental damage. But the proposed drilling at Cape Simmons would be different. After all, at Cape Simmons they'd be using modern drilling methods. They used older methods at Alphin Bay." This answer shuts down that sort of objection by saying, "The drilling methods are the same now as they were five years ago. Thus, what happened with Alphin Bay is still relevantly similar to what we'd anticipate happening at Cape Simmons."

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

   92%
5. E

   No Impact2% picked this

   Oil drilling is only one of several industrial activities that takes place

   This answer isn't saying anything bad about oil drilling. And it isn't strengthening the similarities between the Alphin Bay oil drilling and the proposed oil drilling at Cape Simmons. So it's not doing anything to help this author's case.

   2%