Of every 100 burglar alarms police answer, 99 are false alarms. This situation causes an enormous and dangerous drain...

sbanfi130 December 3, 2019

Sorry typo on the question: How can it be determined that B is not the answer?

BenMingov December 3, 2019

Hi Sbanfi130, thanks for the question!

For these questions, I am often wary of choosing an answer that says "provides background information". I have noticed that more often than not, these are incorrect answer choices, especially in LR.

However, we cannot rely on what is typically the case, we need to examine each question and answer choice based on its own merit.

In this case, answer choice B is incorrect because the statement that burglar alarms, unlike car alarms, are effective in deterring burglaries is not background information. It is actually a premise that is used in the argument to say that we cannot just ban burglar alarm use nor ignore them completely. This is why answer choice C is correct.

But even in this case if we weren't sure whether or not this statement was background information, it does not help to make plausible that the number of burglar alarms that the police must respond to, are a drain on public resources. It simply compares burglar alarms vs. car alarms and says that the former is more effective.

I hope this helped, please let me know if you have any other questions.