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#24309
Complete Question Explanation

Assumption. The correct answer choice is (E)

The conclusion of this stimulus is that those with light utility trucks are more likely to be injured if involved in a high-impact accident than those who drive cars. The justification for this conclusion is that cars are subject to the government’s car-safety standards and light utility trucks are not.

Answer choice (A): The argument in the stimulus compares the safety of light utility trucks with cars, and is concerned with the car safety standards. Whether or not the government has established safety standards for light utility trucks is irrelevant to the present argument.

Answer choice (B): Whether or not people who buy cars based on appearance are more likely to drive recklessly has nothing to do with the argument in the stimulus. We are only concerned with the safety standards in relationship to injuries from high-impact accidents.

Answer choice (C): The conclusion in the stimulus is that if a light utility truck is involved in an accident, there will be more serious injuries. The argument is not contingent on whether or not light utility trucks are more likely in the first place to get into these kinds of accidents.

Answer choice (D): The power of a light utility truck has no effect on the conclusion in the stimulus that they are less safe and therefore drivers are more likely to be seriously injured if involved in a high-impact accident.

Answer choice (E): This is the correct answer choice. The stimulus tells us nothing about the actual standards that the light utility trucks meet. (E) closes this gap by telling us that they are less likely to meet car-safety standards than the cars already subject to the standard. Always remember to double-check your answer with the Assumption Negation technique. In this case, the answer choice would be negated to read, “light utility trucks are more likely to meet the car-safety standards than are cars that are subject to the standards.” This would mean that even though light utility trucks are not subject to the standards, they are actually still meeting them, thus making the conclusion incorrect.

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