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Information and IdeasHardCompleting a line of reasoning

Information and Ideas practice question

Manufacturers of running shoes replace their designs almost every year, promoting each new model as safer than the last. Yet studies comparing injury rates across shoe models find little difference between them. If the redesigns were producing the safety gains their marketing claims, one would expect ____

Which choice most logically completes the text?

  1. A. injury rates to fall as new models are introduced.Correct
  2. B. runners to stop buying new shoes.
  3. C. older models to be safer than newer ones.
  4. D. researchers to stop comparing shoe models.

Answer: A. injury rates to fall as new models are introduced.

The argument is: the marketing claims safety gains; the studies show no difference. The sentence asks what we'd expect IF the claims were true — safer shoes should mean fewer injuries as they arrive. That the rates don't fall is the point.

Why the other answers are wrong

B. runners to stop buying new shoes.
Whether people keep buying shoes says nothing about whether the shoes are safer.
C. older models to be safer than newer ones.
If redesigns improved safety, NEWER models would be safer, not older ones.
D. researchers to stop comparing shoe models.
The studies are what reveal the gap between claim and reality; there's no reason they'd stop.

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