Questions 10—11 are based on the following:
Antinuclear activist: The closing of the nuclear power plant is a victory
for the antinuclear cause. It also represents a belated acknowledgment by the
power industry that they cannot operate such plants safely.
Nuclear power plant manager: It represents no such thing. The availability of
cheap power from nonnuclear sources, together with the cost of mandated safety
inspections and safety repairs, made continued operation uneconomic. Thus it was
not safety considerations but economic considerations that dictated the plant’s
closing. Do strong electric currents, by means of the electromagnetic fields
that accompany them, cause cancer in people who live and work nearby Telephone
line workers, who work near such currents every day, can provide a test case.
They show elevated levels of brain cancer; therefore, the hypothesis of
electromagnetic causation is supported. Which of the following,
if true, most seriously weakens the argument
A. Burying power lines and other measures to protect the public from such
electromagnetic fields would be prohibitively expensive.
B. Telephone line workers are exposed to levels of chemical solvents high
enough to cause brain cancer.
C. High exposure to strong electromagnetic fields is correlated with a
slightly higher-than-normal incidence of childhood leukemia, which is a form of
cancer.
D. Public health officials who found that a group of different illnesses in
people living near a power substation could not reliably be attributed to its
electromagnetic field were accused of covering up the facts.
E. Telephone line workers, like most people have electrical appliances at
home, and most electrical appliances, when turned on, are surrounded by an
electromagnetic field of some measurable level.