Many people argue that the many government programmes intended to increase road safety have caused a steady decline in the number of accidents on our roads. However, some observers report that the real number of accidents may be much higher than is shown in the official records as many accidents are not reported by drivers. They also say that during the time when accident figures have decreased, the number of people going to hospitals because of road accidents has stayed constant.
Which one of the following can be drawn as a conclusion from the above passage?
A. Road safety has improved greatly in recent years.
B. Drivers should be required to report all accidents that occur on the road.
C. Positive views about continually improving road safety may not be supported by what actually happens.
D. Government programmes have been unsuccessful in reducing the number of accidents.
E. Hospital admissions are a good way of measuring changes in the number of accidents on our roads
Summary of Steps to Solve Drawing Conclusion Type Questions:
- Read the Question (Every question)
- Go through the text and underline evidence
- Read the answer and eliminate the outliers
-
- (easiest to eliminate contradictory conclusions)
- Using the underlined evidence and examples, prove each conclusion. Ask yourself “is this another piece of evidence? Or is this proved and strengthened by what’s in the text?”
- Remember to ignore bias and disregard answers that may be true in the real world, but are not supported in the text.
After skimming this passage, you should highlight “however” as it is a crucial transition into the author’s argument. The first sentence introduces a topic, which the author then uses evidence to explain why they disagree with this and what is actually true. The main argument arises from the second sentence: although government programs seemed to have caused fewer accidents, the observation and additional evidence say otherwise. Now let’s examine the answers:
A. This is opposite to the opinion of the author and therefore it cannot be the conclusion. It may be the conclusion of the first sentence, but after the author tries to rebuke this by proving it is actually the opposite that is true. Therefore A is incorrect.
B. There may be many reasons whether a driver chooses or not to report an accident. And what defines an accident? Regardless of this, it is not a relevant answer choice. The text is just arguing why the data may be wrong in the official records, but we cannot know if it is true or not because of what is unreported. A solution may be to report all accidents, however, the author is not trying to find a solution, but rather to prove there is likely a problem. Therefore B is incorrect.
C. The author has tried to prove that the data that is suggesting that road safety is improving may not be giving the full picture. He argues that there are many unreported accidents and constant hospitalizations even after these programs, so maybe the positive change that was thought to have come from these programs is actually without merit. Since this is what the author tried to prove to us, it is the conclusion that can be drawn from the text. Therefore C is the correct answer.
D. Although it may seem like this is what the author is trying to prove, we cannot conclude this. This would be an assumption based on the text and it is important to assume this for his actual conclusion to be true, however, his argument is speculative. Notice the word choice like “may be higher than what is shown in the official records.” And he bases his argument on what “some observers” report. There is no real quantifiable backing behind these statements (besides the hospital numbers being constant), therefore we cannot conclude that the number of accidents has not actually been reduced. Therefore D is not the answer.
E. Hospital measures are not a good way of measuring changes in the number of accidents on the road because they only measure extreme accidents. More often than not, there is no need to go to the hospital, and there are also cases where the accident is so minimal that you do not need to report it if there is no/little damage. This is why it is so hard to measure these things. Therefore E is not the correct answer.
1 Like