PrepTest 151

Incorrect. The stimulus is about overhearing one side of a cell-phone conversation, so nothing said applies when someone is a party to the call.

Correct. Argument or Facts:
Argument

Valid or Flawed:
Valid

Question Type:
Must Be True

Stimulus Summary:
Eavesdroppers have their attention diverted by cell-phone users in two ways:

(1) Guessing what the other party is saying
(2) Cell-phone users talk loudly

So overhearing one side of a conversation is distracting.

Answer Anticipation:
Remember that it's not important to note the logic or argument structure in a Must Be True question, as we're told to treat each statement as true.

Here, the statements all speak to the same topic, but there's not a lot of inferences to be drawn through any type of combination of the statements. Therefore, the correct answer is likely to either weakly generalize from the scenario, or apply that first sentence to a specific scenario.

Answer Explanation:
The stimulus establishes that listening to a cell-phone speaker is distracting (and even if you may think that someone that close could hear both sides of the call, the second point about cell-phone users talking loudly and being distracting would still apply). Since that diverts attention from what they're doing, it will detract from their performance, so this answer is correct.

Key Takeaway:
First, when a Must Be True question features an argument, don't worry about that! In fact, you shouldn't even really think about it. You're still supposed to treat all the statements as if they're true.

Second, when the statements don't really suggest an inference because they don't overlap or chain together, the correct answer will likely either apply a generalization presented in the stimulus (as it did here), or form a weak generalization from the information presented (a weak generalization is one that uses language like "can" instead of "will").

Incorrect. The stimulus never discusses calls on traditional phones (though, if anything, it suggests that hearing only one side of a call via a traditional phone would also distract).

Incorrect. While they may have their attention diverted from what they're doing, that's not the same as losing track of their thoughts. This answer also uses a very strong word—"inevitably"—that isn't justified by the stimulus.

Incorrect. This answer conflates the premise about filling in when overhearing only one side of a conversation and what the person actually on the call must do, so it's incorrect.