Smoking and preparing to smoke while driving:
- Do not affect driving abilities.
- Help maintain driver alertness.
- Are distracting activities. ✓
- Are not distracting activities.
Answer: C. Are distracting activities.
Smoking and getting ready to smoke while driving are distracting activities.
Why this is the answer
The handbook's list of common driving distractions includes lighting a cigarette, right alongside things like eating or drinking and adjusting the radio. It also explains that distractions come in three forms: taking your eyes off the road, taking your hands off the wheel, and thinking about something other than driving. Lighting up and handling a cigarette involves taking a hand off the wheel and your attention off the road, which is why the handbook treats it as a distraction rather than something harmless.
Why the other answers are wrong
- A. Do not affect driving abilities. — The handbook never says smoking helps a driver stay alert; it groups lighting a cigarette with the other things that pull your attention away from driving.
- B. Help maintain driver alertness. — Staying alert is not the point of the handbook's list, which places smoking among distractions, not among things that keep you focused.
- D. Are not distracting activities. — The handbook lists lighting a cigarette as a common distraction, so calling it not distracting goes against what the passage says.
Remember it
Anything that takes a hand off the wheel or your mind off the road counts, and the handbook puts lighting a cigarette in that group.