If Eva responded to Luis by saying

Answer choices

1. A

   No Impact20% picked this

   Bad weather, which radio stations report, would cause traffic to slow down whether or not a “smart highway”

   This doesn't have anything to do with whether a smart highway can do any better at conveying more than 1-minute's worth of information about patterns of traffic congestion. This answer basically just says, "Rain can cause traffic to slow down".

   20%
2. B

   Correct70% picked this

   It would be less costly to have radio stations that give continual, lengthier traffic reports than to install

   Why this is right

   This is kind of a weird rebuttal from Louis, because it's not saying the status quo of radio traffic reports is better than smart highways would be, but it's saying that "a smart highway" is not a better way to deliver this traffic information than "traffic reports on the radio" are, because we could tweak radio traffic reports to accomplish the thing that Eva cares about. We could deliver all this traffic awareness content that Eva desires for less money if we just made a dedicated radio station (like The Weather Channel on cable TV).

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

   70%
3. C

   Opposite8% picked this

   Radio reports can take note of congestion once it occurs, but a “smart highway” system could anticipate and

   Since this is pointing out a way in which the smart highway would be superior to traffic reports on the radio, it's the opposite of what we want.

   8%
4. D

   No Impact0% picked this

   The proposed traffic monitoring would not reduce the privacy

   If the smart highway did reduce the privacy of others, that would be a bad thing that would help Louis argue that delivering traffic updates via radio is superior. By ruling out that idea, we might be marginally strengthening Eva's plan. No matter what, we're not helping Louis argue for the superiority of radio.

   0%
5. E

   Opposite1% picked this

   Toll collection booths, which constitute traffic bottlenecks, would largely be replaced in the “smart highway” system by electronic debiting of commuters’ accounts

   Since this is pointing out a way in which the smart highway would be beneficial to traffic flow, it's the opposite of what we want. (We want to help Louis defend the idea that we don't need a smart highway system; delivering traffic reports on the radio is at least as good)

   1%