What does alcohol do to your driving skills and judgement?
- It helps driving skills but harms your judgement.
- It harms both driving skills and judgement. ✓
- It has no effect on either driving skills or judgement.
- It has no effect on judgement but it harms driving skills.
Answer: B. It harms both driving skills and judgement.
Alcohol harms both your driving skills and your judgement.
Why this is the answer
The Texas handbook says that when a person drinks alcohol, one of the first effects is losing judgement, and sight is impaired, which slows reactions and makes it hard to judge another vehicle's speed. It adds that a person's ability to reason can all but disappear. So alcohol works against you on both sides: the mental side (judgement and reasoning) and the physical skills needed to operate the vehicle and react to events. Nothing in the handbook suggests alcohol helps any driving ability.
Why the other answers are wrong
- A. It helps driving skills but harms your judgement. — The handbook never says alcohol improves driving skills; it describes impaired sight, slower reactions, and poor judgement.
- C. It has no effect on either driving skills or judgement. — The handbook says the opposite: alcohol affects the mental and physical skills needed to drive and react to events.
- D. It has no effect on judgement but it harms driving skills. — Judgement is one of the first things lost after drinking, so it is not spared while skills are harmed.
Remember it
Think of alcohol as taking away two things at once: a clear head and a steady hand.