Beat The GMAT

shilpi84 · Fri Nov 20, 2009 11:28 pm

Gamba: Muñoz claims that the Southwest Hopeville
Neighbors Association overwhelmingly opposes
the new water system, citing this as evidence of
citywide opposition. The association did pass a
resolution opposing the new water system, but
only 25 of 350 members voted, with 10 in favor
of the system. Furthermore, the 15 opposing
votes represent far less than 1 percent of
Hopeville’s population. One should not assume
that so few votes represent the view of the
majority of Hopeville’s residents.
Of the following, which one most accurately describes
Gamba’s strategy of argumentation?

(A) questioning a conclusion based on the results of
a vote, on the grounds that people with certain
views are more likely to vote
(B) questioning a claim supported by statistical data
by arguing that statistical data can be
manipulated to support whatever view the
interpreter wants to support

(C) attempting to refute an argument by showing
that, contrary to what has been claimed, the
truth of the premises does not guarantee the
truth of the conclusion
(D) criticizing a view on the grounds that the view
is based on evidence that is in principle
impossible to disconfirm
(E) attempting to cast doubt on a conclusion by
claiming that the statistical sample on which
the conclusion is based is too small to be
dependable

I am stuck between C and E.

Back to top

ershovici · Sat Nov 21, 2009 1:27 am

IMO C

Because author agrees with all the data presented, but states that there are only several votes and there is no a citywide opposition, as stated in the line 4.

Back to top

gmatmachoman · Sat Nov 21, 2009 6:56 am

imo [color=red]E[/color]

Back to top

maihuna · Sat Nov 21, 2009 7:46 am

I think E as ok, as argument explicitly mentions "less than 1%".

Back to top

pandeyvineet24 · Sat Nov 21, 2009 9:29 am

IMO E as well.

Back to top

Stacey Koprince · Tue Nov 24, 2009 11:07 am

Received a PM asking me to reply. Please remember to post the source (author or company) of a question in order for experts to reply!

Back to top

shilpi84 · Wed Nov 25, 2009 6:33 pm

Hi Stacey,

The question is from LSAT.

Regards

Shilpi

Back to top

Stacey Koprince · Mon Nov 30, 2009 11:20 am

Please cite the specific source - author, company name, book name, etc. Is this from an official, released LSAT test? A test-prep company that makes LSAT materials? Whoever it is, please specify who owns this material.

Back to top

shilpi84 · Thu Dec 03, 2009 9:36 pm

Hi Stacey,

The question is from an LSAT official test.

Regards

Shilpi

Back to top

nakul_anand · Fri Dec 04, 2009 5:26 pm

The argument says-

"One should not assume that so few votes represent the view of the majority of Hopeville’s residents."

So that tells me that the answer should be E because less than 1% of the population voted against the system.

What's the OA?

Back to top

Stacey Koprince · Mon Dec 07, 2009 2:59 pm

If you are studying for the GMAT, this one's not a great one to study. This question is very typical of the LSAT but not very typical of the GMAT. (Some LSAT CR questions are similar to GMAT questions - but this isn't one of them.)

Munoz: one subset of the city opposes something, therefore the whole city opposes it
Not under dispute: subset did oppose the system, but only a very small percentage actually voted, representing a tiny portion of the overall population
(so now we've got a subset of a subset - a TINY percentage - on which Munoz based the claim)
Gamba: we can't assume that such a small subset actually does lead to Munoz's conclusion

Note that Gamba does not say that Munoz is wrong, or that the small subset does NOT represent the broader population. Gamba merely says we shouldn't assume that it DOES represent the broader population. This is akin to Gamba saying "Maybe it does, maybe it doesn't - we can't really tell."

In other words, Gamba does not refute (tear down) Munoz's conclusion (so eliminate choice C); Gamba merely casts doubt by pointing out that the evidence Munoz has given so far isn't sufficient and we really don't know what the whole population thinks. (And, in particular, that evidence is insufficient because the sample size is much too small - choice E.)

FYI: I answered this one but, in future, if I think an LSAT question is not representative of the GMAT, then I'm going to say so and not discuss the question. After all, this forum is called Beat the GMAT. Smile

Back to top

Beat The GMAT

argumentation strategy

Free GMAT Prep Resources

GMAT Prep Discounts

Free Upcoming GMAT Events

Latest GMAT Articles

Latest GMAT Videos

Popular Resources