Editorial: The city has chosen a contractor to upgrade the heating systems in public buildings. Only 40 percent of the technicians employed by this contractor are certified by the Heating Technicians Association. So the city selected a contractor 60 percent of whose technicians are unqualified, which is an outrage.Which one of the following is an assumption required by the argument in the editorial?
(A) Certified technicians receive higher pay than uncertified technicians.
(B) There are no contractors with fewer than 40 percent of their technicians certified.
(C) Technicians who lack certification are not qualified technicians.
(D) Qualified technicians installed the heating systems to be upgraded.
(E) The contractor hired by the city has personal ties to city officials.
A. Incorrect. The argument doesn't mention pay, but the negation introduces an irrelevant point about pay disparity.
B. Is also incorrect. It introduces a comparison between contractors, but the argument focuses on the certification and qualification of technicians, not contractors.
C. Correct. The flaw in the argument is that it assumes certification directly correlates with qualification, without establishing this link.
D. Incorrect. The argument doesn’t focus on who installed the systems but on the qualification of current technicians.
E. Incorrect. While conflicts of interest may matter in certain situations, the argument is solely about technician qualification, not external factors like conflicts of interest.
