Editorialist: Additional restrictions

Answer choices

1. A

   Weakens - Alternate Explanation9% picked this

   Teenagers tend to drive older and less stable cars than

   Teens don't get into more fatal accidents because they lack basic driving skills, it's because they tend to drive the family hand-me-down car, which is "less stable" and thus more vulnerable to getting into accidents.

   9%
2. B

   Weakens - Alternate Explanation11% picked this

   Teenagers and their passengers are less likely to use seat belts and shoulder

   Teens don't get into more fatal accidents because they lack basic driving skills, it's because they and their passengers are less likely to wear seat belts. Thus, even if they get into accidents at the same rate as everyone else does, their accidents will result in more fatalities, because being un-buckled makes you more likely to die in an accident.

   11%
3. C

   Weakens - Alternate Explanation13% picked this

   Teenagers drive, on average, over twice as far each year as

   Teens don't get into more fatal accidents because they lack basic driving skills, it's because they tend to drive twice as much as other drivers. No matter how good a driver you are, the more you drive, the more likely you are to get into an accident. So if teens drive twice as much as other drivers, then they would be twice as likely to get into an accident as other drivers.

   13%
4. D

   Correct57% picked this

   Teenagers cause car accidents that are more serious than those caused

   Why this is right

   This answer has some explanatory power when it comes to teens being responsible for higher than their fair share of fatalities, but it potentially strengthens. Are they causing more-serious accidents because they lack basic driving skills? Maybe. Are they causing more-serious accidents through no fault of their driving (maybe they drive older cars that tend to be heavier and thus cause more force in a collision)? Maybe, but this answer isn't giving us any information about why teens' accidents are more serious in a way that would allow us to say, "It's not that they're bad drivers, it's just that the accidents they get into are more serious." The author would be like, "Right ... they get into more serious accidents because they're bad drivers." This isn't giving us a way to make an excuse for teens' higher fatality rate.

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

   57%
5. E

   Weakens - Alternate Explanation10% picked this

   Teenagers are likely to drive with more passengers than the

   Teens don't get into more fatal accidents because they lack basic driving skills, it's because they tend to drive with lots of friends in the car (whereas most adults drive alone), so when a teen driver gets into a terrible accident, there might be twice as many people in the car that could be fatally injured.

   10%