Critical Reasoning

Jim: The United States Mint has recently announced that it costs more to manufacture a penny or a nickel than the face value of each coin. In addition, there are very few items that can be purchased for a nickel, and virtually none that can be purchased for a penny. Since both the penny and the nickel no longer provide a necessary function in today's economy, I propose that the government eliminate them and declare the base unit of U.S. currency to be the dime.

Mary: Don't be silly. This would mean that all prices would round up to the nearest dime-nobody would want that. Congress would never approve, much less consider, such an unpopular measure.

In her response to Jim, Mary does all of the following EXCEPT

A: makes an assumption about the possible negative consequences of Jim's proposal.
B: implies that a particular regulatory path is necessary to implement Jim's proposal
C: provides a reason why Jim's proposal would be difficult to implement, regardless of its potential benefits
D: assumes that Congress would consider the monetary benefits less important than public opinion of the proposal
E: attempts to undermine a premise upon which Jim bases his proposal


OA is E

A: makes an assumption about the possible negative consequences of Jim's proposal.
- Mary's assumption: all prices would round up to nearest dime

B: implies that a particular regulatory path is necessary to implement Jim's proposal
- Congress approval is mentioned as regulatory path

C: provides a reason why Jim's proposal would be difficult to implement, regardless of its potential benefits
- Reason: Congress would never approve

D: assumes that Congress would consider the monetary benefits less important than public opinion of the proposal
- It is stated that congress would less consider this measure.

E: attempts to undermine a premise upon which Jim bases his proposal
- Mary never tried to undermine Jim's premise. She accepted all of the Jim's statement, but stated the consequences of the measure.

IMO: E

Yeah E is the answer. I narrowed it down between C and E.
C is wrong because "Congress would never approve" --> indicates difficulty to implement. This can be infered from the passage.

My take is on B.
Experts , your views needed :

One more vote for E.

+1 for E. Good problem!