A
The highway began charging higher tolls when it switched to electronic toll paying.
B
Even after the switch to electronic toll paying, there were sometimes long delays at the highway’s interchanges.
C
The prospect of faster, more convenient travel induced more drivers to use the highway.
D
Travel time on the highway for car trips under 30 kilometers (18.6 miles) did not decrease appreciably.
E
Some drivers did not switch to the electronic system but instead continued to use cash to pay their tolls at toll booths.
Critic: The Gazette-Standard newspaper recently increased its editorial staff to avoid factual errors. But this clearly is not working. Compared to its biggest competitor, the Gazette-Standard currently runs significantly more corrections acknowledging factual errors.
Summarize Argument
The critic concludes that the Gazette-Standard’s increase in editorial staff isn’t working. His evidence is that the Gazette-Standard runs more corrections of factual errors than its competitors.
Notable Assumptions
The critic assumes that the Gazette-Standard runs more corrections of factual errors because more factual errors appear in its pages than those of competing newspapers. This means the critic doesn’t think other newspapers are making as many or more mistakes without correcting them.
A
The Gazette-Standard pays its editorial staff lower salaries than its biggest competitor pays its editorial staff.
We don’t care how much the Gazette-Standard pays its editorial staff. We have no idea how that would affect their quality of work.
B
The Gazette-Standard has been in business considerably longer than has its biggest competitor.
We don’t care how long these newspapers have been in business. We care about the recent editorial changes.
C
The Gazette-Standard more actively follows up reader complaints about errors in the paper than does its biggest competitor.
The Gazette-Standard runs more corrections because it follows up on reader complaints. We therefore can’t conclude the Gazette-Standard actually has more errors than its competitor, who may only follow up on a small portion of reader complaints.
D
The Gazette-Standard’s articles are each checked by more editors than are the articles of its biggest competitor.
If these articles are being checked by more editors, then the newspaper shouldn’t have to keep running so many corrections. This seems to support the author’s argument.
E
The increase in the Gazette-Standard’s editorial staff has been offset by a decrease in the reporting staff at the newspaper.
Less reporters doesn’t mean the newspaper will necessarily have more editorial errors. We have no idea what effect less reporters would have on the newspaper.