What does alcohol do to your driving skills and judgment?
- It helps driving skills but harms your judgment
- It harms both driving skills and judgment ✓
- It has no effect on either driving skills or judgment
- It has no effect on judgment but it harms driving skills
Answer: B. It harms both driving skills and judgment
Alcohol harms both your driving skills and your judgment.
Why this is the answer
The handbook says alcohol delays your reaction time, reduces how clearly you see, and changes your judgment of speed and distance, and that the skills you need to drive safely are made weaker. It also makes you less inhibited and more likely to take chances. So it works against your physical ability to drive and your decision-making at the same time, and this starts with the first drink, before you look or feel drunk.
Why the other answers are wrong
- A. It helps driving skills but harms your judgment — Nothing in the handbook says alcohol improves any driving skill; it says the skills you need to drive safely are made weaker.
- C. It has no effect on either driving skills or judgment — The handbook describes clear effects on reaction time, vision and judgment of speed and distance, so it does have an effect.
- D. It has no effect on judgment but it harms driving skills — The handbook says alcohol changes your judgment of speed and distances and makes you more prone to take chances, so judgment is affected too.
Remember it
Picture alcohol as pulling down two dials at once: the skill dial and the judgment dial, both starting with the first drink.