Salesman: "The revolutionary new Shepherd's Gate Protection System represents the latest in sheep-tending technology! The built-in sensors recognize the scent of predators from miles around. When your flock is in danger of attack, the electronic gates surrounding the flock will quickly slam shut, keeping any unwanted animals away, and your flock safer than ever! Sure, the system is prone to false alarms, but you know what they say: Better safe than sorry!"
Which one of the following, if true, most strengthens the salesman's argument?
A. Sheep cannot be injured by the electronic gates when they quickly slam shut.
(A) is incorrect even though it probably helps the salesman's pitch; it is not as good an answer as (B). Although this might be a selling point, the sales pitch as stated in the stimulus suggests that the customer's main concern is protecting his sheep from predators, and that the customer might hesitate to buy the system because it might not work properly, that the gates might close when the shepherd doesn't want them to, not because his sheep might be injured by the gates when they close. If such danger exists, it exists whether the alarm is false or not, but the salesman never mentions it; he only mentions false alarms as a cause for concern. The customer is not likely to leave his sheep unprotected because of a risk that they might be injured by a security system.
B. Similar electronic protection systems are currently used to protect cattle from attack by predators.
(B) is the best answer. The sales pitch in the stimulus suggests that the salesman, after describing how the system works, wants to assuage customers' concerns that it may not always work properly because it is prone to false alarms. The fact that similar systems are currently being used in similar applications suggests that the system works well enough and is suitable for its purpose, which bears out the "better safe than sorry" cliché at the end. Unlike (A), this claim addresses the specific risk that the customer is concerned about, and the specific decision he needs to make: whether the system will protect his flock from predators.
C. Roughly half the time, when the gates close automatically, it's because of a false alarm.
(C) is incorrect because it does not support the salesman's argument that the system will work as advertised. The salesman is trying to minimize the problem of false alarms. If "roughly half" of the system's activations are caused by false alarms, that's a big problem. That would make the customer less likely to buy the system, not more.
D. Some sheep predators have been hunted almost to extinction.
(D) is incorrect because even if it is true, it's irrelevant. It has no impact on the quality of the salesman's pitch or whether the customer is likely to buy the system.
E. Flocks of sheep are rarely attacked by predators.
(E) is incorrect because if it were true, the buyer would not need a fancy high-tech security system, let alone one "prone to false alarms," to protect his sheep. This would make the customer less likely to buy the product, not more.
