Assignment:
Resident: Our city's current smog situation could have been avoided had city officials heeded warnings years ago that nitrogen dioxide emissions needed to be reduced. Ground-level ozone, smog's primary ingredient, is formed when nitrogen dioxide from smokestacks and automobiles reacts in the air with hydrocarbons. Cities that began reducing nitrogen dioxide emissions years ago have seen decreases in ozone levels.
Which one of the following most accurately describes the role played in the resident's argument by the statement that cities that began reducing nitrogen dioxide emissions years ago have seen significant decreases in ozone levels?
- It is an intermediate conclusion from which the overall conclusion of the argument is supposed to follow.
- It is one of the premises offered as support for the argument's overall conclusion.
- It is the overall conclusion that the argument seeks to establish.
- It is offered as a generalization from an intermediate conclusion of the argument.
- It is offered as an illustration of the generalization that functions as the overall conclusion of the argument.