#20 - Advertisement: The Country Classic is the only kind

[freddythepup]

Hi, can someone please explain how to go about answering this question? I chose A as the answer, I'm not sure why D works better? I thought the advertisement is misleading because the argument is saying that Country Classic is the ONLY car in its class that has the antilock braking system with TrackAid. But A shows that all of the cars in the same class as Country Classic offers antilock braking system, which shows that the ad is misleading. Why would D, which talks about other cars in the same class having antilock system without TrackAid be better?

[Adam Tyson]

The first step in attacking a Weaken question, freddythepup, is to identify the conclusion of the argument. That's the thing that you want to make less likely to be true. In this case, that conclusion is that the Country Classic is the only car for you.

Next, prephrase: what would make that conclusion less likely to be true? Well, anything that suggests that there could be another car in that class that a safety-conscious person would want! That's what I would look for in the answer choices - the possibility of another car being just as safe, or safer, than the Country Classic.

Finally, sort the losers and contenders.

Answer A: This doesn't hurt because while all the cars may have anti-lock brakes, the Country Classic is still the only one that also features TrackAid. This info doesn't make any car as safe as the Classic.

Answer B: Irrelevant - we don't care who made the cars, but only whether there could be another car that is just as safe, or safer, than the Classic.

Answer C: Fascinating info, but it still tells us nothing about any other car's safety level. Loser.

Answer D: Winner! TrackAid might be nice, but there is another option that does the same thing, so some other car with ABS and that other feature could be just as safe, or safer, than the Classic! Exactly what we were looking for!

Answer E: Irrelevant - cost isn't the issue, safety is.

Just to be clear about your analysis of answer A, having ABS isn't enough - they have to also have TrackAid, or something similar, to be as good as the Classic!