A car’s antitheft alarm tat sounds in the middle of the night in a crowded city neighborhood may stop an attempted car theft. On the other hand, the alarm might signal only a fault in the device, or a response to some harmless contact, such as a tree branch brushing the car. But whatever the cause, the sleep of many people in the neighborhood is disturbed. Out of consideration for others, people who have these antitheft alarms on their cars should deactivate them when they park in crowded city neighborhoods at night.
Which one of the following, if assumed by the author of the passage, would allow her properly to draw her conclusion that the owners of alarm-equipped cars should deactivate the alarms when parking in crowded city neighborhoods at night?
(A) The inconvenience of false alarms is small price to pay for the security of a neighborhood.
(B) In most cases when a car alarm sounds at night, it is a false alarm.
(C) Allowing the residents of a crowded city neighborhood to sleep undisturbed is more important than preventing car theft.
(D) People who equip their cars with antitheft alarms are generally inconsiderate of others.
(E) The sounding of car antitheft alarms during the daytime does not disturb the residents of crowded city neighborhoods.
Answer:
(B) In most cases when a car alarm sounds at night, it is a false alarm.
Explanation:
Since the author is trying to dissuade car owners from leaving their car alarms on at night, he should provide reasons to convince them that it is not really beneficial. If the author can prove that most times when the alarm sounds at night, it is a false alarm, they may see that it does not really make sense to leave these alarms on. So, instead of going through the discomfort of attending to false alarms at night, car owners will rather choose to put off their car alarms at night.
Option B will be more convincing for the readers.
Great Britain had many colonies in North America. What was the purpose of these colonies according to the ideas of mercantilism?