Critical Reasoning

To save time and money on water and maintenance, many homeowners are opting for the use of synthetic pot plants, instead of real plants, for the decoration of the interiors of their homes. The synthetic plants being sold today are very realistic in their details and often quite beautiful. Since most homeowners welcome ways to reduce expenses, synthetic plants are increasing in popularity. Because of these benefits, homeowners should replace their live indoor plants with synthetic plants.

The answer to which of the following would be most useful in evaluating the argument?

Are synthetic plants replicas of real live plant species, or are they original designs based on common plant forms?
Can the efficiency of the photosynthesis of a live indoor plant be affected by the behavior of humans in its surroundings?

Do homeowners with live plants spend more than 5% of their overall home expenses on the maintenance of such plants?
Are the organic gaseous exchanges of a live plant advantageous to its immediate surrounding environment?
What percentage of homeowners are interested in cutting down the costs associated with general home maintenance?

Answer : D WHY NOT B

Hi Rich,

I understand that D options provide benefits of live plant. But it is nowhere mentioned in the passage that people needs to consider the benefits of live plants for replacing them with Synthetic Plants.
Also it is mentioned that for Homeowners the two crtical factors are Time and Money. If D option affects any of the above factors, then D Options is Right.

On the other hand B options suggests Physical activity might be another reason that could harm the plants irrespective of the type of plants and hence affects maintainence of the Plant.

Thanks

When I read this stimulus I had to investigate to see if this was how it was really written or if there might have been a typo.

I found this on the Economist GMAT tutor as an example CR question. And the question does indeed say "To save time and money on water and maintenance, many homeowners are opting for the use of synthetic pot plants, instead of real plants, for the decoration of the interiors of their homes."

The actual term is "potted plants." Pot plants is something entirely different. In the United States pot plants will usually get you arrested as this term refers to marijuana.

I say this not to be the grammar police or something, but because as Ceilidh mentions this is a bit or a strange question and the improper word choice sort of adds to that.

EVERY "most useful to know in order to evaluate question" I have ever seen had a correct answer that had some link between the evidence and the conclusion. For this question you could have ignored everything except the conclusion and just picked D. In fact, saranshpuri would have had a better chance at picking D without reading the rest of the stimulus as it discussed expenses and time and water.

As someone who has written plenty of CR questions I know how tough it can be, I am just saying that this one could use a little edit to make it more in line with something that would be seen on the GMAT.

Wow -- what a typo! Thanks for bringing this to our attention. All of our content undergoes a strict peer review process, but mistakes do sneak through. This will be corrected shortly.