Critical Reasoning: Conclusion Strengthening Questions

A recent survey shows that 86% of the passengers on international flights would not be satisfied with being served cold meals alone on flights lasting for more than 6 hours. Nutritionists agree that because the food in the warm meals served by airlines is cooked, cooled, brought back to room temperature, cooled while in storage, and then reheated again before being served, such food has either no influence, or in serious cases, a negative effect on the health levels of passengers. Based on this information, airlines would be well-advised to implement the serving of cold meals only during flights.

Which of the following, if true, most strongly supports the above conclusion?

Incorrect.

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This answer choice supports serving warm meals by stating that they take less time to prepare, even if this time is only slightly lower than that needed to make a cold meal. This weakens the argument's conclusion.

Incorrect.

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This answer choice weakens the argument's conclusion when it should be strengthening it. If the warm meals can be prepared without wasting energy, then that's one less reason to prefer cold meals to warm meals.

Incorrect.

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Although it starts off by praising cold meals (vitamins and minerals), this answer choice supports the idea that warm meals are healthy (extermination of harmful bacteria), therefore undermining the argument's position, instead of strengthening it.

Incorrect.

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This answer choice supports serving warm meals by stating that passengers often feel chilly during flights. This undermines the conclusion that cold meals are preferable, but you were supposed to strengthen it.

Impressive!

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This answer choice strengthens the conclusion: it alleviates the public opinion factor by stating that people would be convinced that cold meals are better if they were presented with the health information regarding the issue.

The systems that once used large amounts of fuel in order to heat the meals on international flights have been improved so that they now rely on superfluous energy from the aircrafts' engines as their power source.

Even though nourishment in the form of a cold meal may be associated with vitamins and minerals that are likely to decompose during the cooking process, heating often results in the extermination of harmful bacteria, resulting in an overall increase in the health level of a meal.

Passengers whose preferences would usually not lead them to advocate the replacement of a warm meal with a cold one during an international flight of more than 6 hours are likely to reverse their opinions after being presented with scientifically-based health considerations.

The air conditioning used on airplanes maintains a temperature that is experienced as lower than the comfort levels of the average passenger, thereby contributing to the attraction of a warm meal.

The time needed for flight attendants to heat warm meals is only slightly shorter than the time needed to assemble the separate items contained by a cold meal.