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Difficulty: HardStrengthening Arguments

Municipal water authorities in a large urban district recently installed high-sensitivity acoustic sensors along major underground distribution conduits to detect structural micro-fractures before major pipe bursts occur. Although installing and maintaining these sensors requires a substantial initial financial investment, utility administrators conclude that deploying the network will decrease the city's total annual water infrastructure repair expenses over the next five years. Which of the following, if true, provides the strongest support for the utility administrators' conclusion?

  1. Addressing minor micro-fractures proactively costs a small fraction of the expense required to fix catastrophic pipe ruptures and repair surrounding municipal road infrastructure.Answer
  2. B
    The acoustic sensors frequently register false-positive alerts due to surface traffic vibrations, forcing maintenance crews to perform costly exploratory excavations.
  3. C
    Municipalities that modernized their above-ground water treatment facilities saw a marked reduction in total operational expenditure over the past decade.
  4. D
    The acoustic monitoring technology was originally engineered for deep-sea oil pipeline maintenance before being adapted for urban water networks.
  5. E
    Residential water utility tariffs in the city are mandated by law to increase at a fixed annual rate throughout the next five years.

Answer

The statement showing that repairing minor micro-fractures proactively costs a small fraction of fixing catastrophic ruptures provides the strongest support for the conclusion.
The argument concludes that investing in acoustic sensors will lead to a net reduction in annual repair costs. To strengthen this claim, an option must show that early detection translates into cost savings that exceed the cost of the sensors and minor repairs. The statement explaining that repairing micro-fractures costs only a small fraction of repairing major burst damage provides this critical link, confirming substantial net savings.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Deconstruct the argument core
Premise: Acoustic sensors detect micro-fractures early but require high upfront and maintenance investments. Conclusion: Sensor deployment will lower total annual infrastructure repair expenses over 5 years.
Understanding the gap between the cost of the intervention and the claimed net savings is essential.
2
Identify the unstated assumption required to strengthen the conclusion
The money saved by preventing major bursts must outweigh the cost of installing sensors and fixing micro-fractures.
To prove a net decrease in spending, the savings mechanism must be financially validated.
3
Evaluate the choices for logical impact
Demonstrating that proactive micro-fracture repairs cost only a small fraction of catastrophic burst repairs confirms that early detection yields substantial net savings.
This establishes that the financial benefit directly exceeds the expenditure required for implementation.

Key Concept

Strengthening a financial trade-off argument by confirming that cost savings exceed implementation expenses.
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Topics

Strengthening Arguments

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