The OA is not given. Could you please explain it ?
Editorial: The roof of Northtown Council’s equipment-storage building collapsed under the weight of last week’s heavy snowfall. The building was constructed recently and met local building-safety codes in every particular, except that the nails used for attaching roof supports to the building’s columns were of a smaller size than the codes specify for this purpose. Clearly, this collapse exemplifies how even a single, apparently insignificant, departure from safety standards can have severe consequences.
Which of the following, if true, most strongly supports the editorial’s argument?
- The only other buildings whose roofs collapsed from the weight of the snowfall were older buildings constructed according to less exacting standards than those in the safety codes.
- Because of the particular location of the equipment-storage building, the weight of snow on its roof was greater than the maximum weight allowed for in the safety codes.
- Because the equipment-storage building was not intended for human occupation, some safety-code provisions that would have applied to an office building did not apply to it.
- The columns of the building were no stronger than the building-safety codes required for such a building.
- Because the equipment-storage building was where the council kept snow removal equipment, the building was almost completely empty when the roof collapsed.
Always try to simplify the argument —
even a single, apparently insignificant, departure from safety standards (nail did not meet safety standards) –> collapse happened
We have been asked to strengthen the reasoning above.
Let us look at option A — A suggests that ONLY those buildings that did not meet safety standards collapsed; in other words, those that did follow safety codes DID NOT collapse. A strengthens the argument by suggesting that if you follow codes, the building won’t collapse.
[If you want to look at it mechanically, here goes —
departure from safety standards (cause) –> collapse (effect).
One way to strengthen this is to say — NO CAUSE –> NO EFFECT
(i.e. No departure from safety standards –> No collapse). This is what option A does.]