"I've heard many reasons why our nation should reduce its reliance on petroleum vehicle fuels. One is that relying on imported oil makes our economy dependent on the political whims of foreign rulers. Another is that other energy sources, like the possibility of hydrogen based fuels, are less harmful to the environment. And a third is that petroleum is not a renewable resource so when we've used it all up, it will be gone! But I don't think we're likely to use it all up for at least another fifty years. And by then we'll have invented new and better fuels and more fuel-efficient vehicles too. So that argument doesn't worry me. And I don't really believe the stuff about how foreign leaders can force our nation to change its policies simply by decreasing their oil production. Oil companies like Exxon have made record profits precisely in those times when the supply of foreign oil was reduced. I don't see the big oil companies being very interested in policy change when the money is rolling in. And for another, our nation has demonstrated that it is willing to wage war rather than to permit foreign leaders to push us around. So this whole thing about how we have to reduce our reliance on petroleum based gasoline, diesel, and jet fuel is bogus."
The speaker's reasoning is best evaluated as
"I've heard many reasons why our nation should reduce its reliance on petroleum vehicle fuels. One is that relying on imported oil makes our economy dependent on the political whims of foreign rulers. Another is that other energy sources, like the possibility of hydrogen based fuels, are less harmful to the environment. And a third is that petroleum is not a renewable resource so when we've used it all up, it will be gone! But I don't think we're likely to use it all up for at least another fifty years. And by then we'll have invented new and better fuels and more fuel-efficient vehicles too. So that argument doesn't worry me. And I don't really believe the stuff about how foreign leaders can force our nation to change its policies simply by decreasing their oil production. Oil companies like Exxon have made record profits precisely in those times when the supply of foreign oil was reduced. I don't see the big oil companies being very interested in policy change when the money is rolling in. And for another, our nation has demonstrated that it is willing to wage war rather than to permit foreign leaders to push us around. So this whole thing about how we have to reduce our reliance on petroleum based gasoline, diesel, and jet fuel is bogus."
The speaker's reasoning is best evaluated as
The correct option is D weak. The speaker ignored the environmental
argument entirely.
Solution Strategy:- The reasoning task here is to evaluate how well the speaker makes the case for not reducing reliance on petroleum vehicle fuels. That evaluation requires determining how fair -minded the speaker was in presenting and critiquing the major arguments for the opposite point of view, and determining how strong the reasons are which the speaker presented of the view he is defending. To address these questions well one must momentarily set aside one's own opinions on the issue at hand so as not to be distracted from evaluating the speaker.
weak. The speaker ignored the environmental argument entirely.
Solution Strategy:- The reasoning task here is to evaluate how well the speaker makes the case for not reducing reliance on petroleum vehicle fuels. That evaluation requires determining how fair -minded the speaker was in presenting and critiquing the major arguments for the opposite point of view, and determining how strong the reasons are which the speaker presented of the view he is defending. To address these questions well one must momentarily set aside one's own opinions on the issue at hand so as not to be distracted from evaluating the speaker.
