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adam007
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 Posted: Sun Apr 06, 2008 12:13 pm Post subject: Causation question |
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Can somebody please be so kind as to explain me why the ans is E and not D (example comes from Kaplan's GMAT 800 - but I still don't get the explanation).
Reading skills among high school students in Gotham have been steadily declining, which can only be the result of overcrowding in the schools.
Which of the following, if true, most seriously weakens the argument above?
A. The high school system in Gotham succeeds in giving students a good education at considerably less cost than do most systems.
B. Several cities have found that overcrowding in the schools is not always associated with lower reading scores.
C. Gotham schools have a greater teacher-to-student ratio than most other school systems.
D. Students' reading skills have not declined in other cities where the high schools are just as overcrowded as those of Gotham.
E. Schools are not overcrowded in many cities where high school reading scores have declined more than they have in Gotham.
Why E??? For me it's clearly D because:
1) it offers alternative explanation (there must be some other reason for decline in reading skills than overcrowded schools)
2) E talks about "scores" not "skills" - isn't it a shift of scope? |
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krajaram29
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| Posted: Sun Apr 06, 2008 8:08 pm Post subject: |
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the answer is e..since this is a causation, to find a weakener, we need to find an answer that the same effect is not caused by the same cause.
cause -- overcrowding in schools --- A
effect -- decline in reading --- B
answer choice D says A causes not B.
answer choice E says not A causes B.
Only E says tht something else is causing B.
choice D doesn't weaken. |
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nikhil_havele
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| Posted: Mon Apr 07, 2008 7:36 am Post subject: Re: Causation question |
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| adam007 wrote: | Can somebody please be so kind as to explain me why the ans is E and not D (example comes from Kaplan's GMAT 800 - but I still don't get the explanation).
Reading skills among high school students in Gotham have been steadily declining, which can only be the result of overcrowding in the schools.
Which of the following, if true, most seriously weakens the argument above?
A. The high school system in Gotham succeeds in giving students a good education at considerably less cost than do most systems.
B. Several cities have found that overcrowding in the schools is not always associated with lower reading scores.
C. Gotham schools have a greater teacher-to-student ratio than most other school systems.
D. Students' reading skills have not declined in other cities where the high schools are just as overcrowded as those of Gotham.
E. Schools are not overcrowded in many cities where high school reading scores have declined more than they have in Gotham.
Why E??? For me it's clearly D because:
1) it offers alternative explanation (there must be some other reason for decline in reading skills than overcrowded schools)
2) E talks about "scores" not "skills" - isn't it a shift of scope? |
Its very easy:
we have to read the statement in this way to find out the answer:
"Overcrowding in the schools results in decline of reading skills"
Now, in order to weaken the statement we should look for the option which states, "overcrowding doesnot result in decline of reading skills".
So, if you read all the options, you will see that E is perfect fit.
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Stuart Kovinsky
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| Posted: Mon Apr 07, 2008 11:49 am Post subject: Re: Causation question |
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| adam007 wrote: | Can somebody please be so kind as to explain me why the ans is E and not D (example comes from Kaplan's GMAT 800 - but I still don't get the explanation).
Reading skills among high school students in Gotham have been steadily declining, which can only be the result of overcrowding in the schools.
Which of the following, if true, most seriously weakens the argument above?
A. The high school system in Gotham succeeds in giving students a good education at considerably less cost than do most systems.
B. Several cities have found that overcrowding in the schools is not always associated with lower reading scores.
C. Gotham schools have a greater teacher-to-student ratio than most other school systems.
D. Students' reading skills have not declined in other cities where the high schools are just as overcrowded as those of Gotham.
E. Schools are not overcrowded in many cities where high school reading scores have declined more than they have in Gotham.
Why E??? For me it's clearly D because:
1) it offers alternative explanation (there must be some other reason for decline in reading skills than overcrowded schools)
2) E talks about "scores" not "skills" - isn't it a shift of scope? |
There are, most commonly, 2 different types of correct answers we see for "weaken the causation argument" question. Either:
(1) an alternative cause; or
(2) a disconnect between the proposed cause and effect.
Rarely, we see a 3rd type of right answer:
(3) a suggestion that the author has cause and effect reversed.
It's always a good idea to predict the right answer for assumption, strengthening and weakening questions. Predicting helps you to find the right answer more quickly and, perhaps more importantly, prevents you from being distracted by the wrong answers.
In this question, our prediction may have been something like:
| Quote: | | Either another reason why reading skills have steadily declined OR something that suggests that reading skills and overcrowding are not connected. |
Only (e) matches either of those predictions: it disconnects the cause (overcrowding) from the effect (declining reading skills) by telling us that there are lots of other places where the cause is present by the effect is absent.
(d), on the other hand, tells us that we can still get the effect without the cause. This is not an effective rebuttal to a cause-effect relationship, since it doesn't propose any alternative reason why skills have declined.
Let's look at a simpler, yet analagous, argument:
| Quote: | | John just caught the flu, which can only be the result of all the time he spends in the emergency room at the hospital. |
(d) Lots of people catch the flu even though they never visit the emergency room.
(e) John's co-workers, who also spend lots of time in the emergency room, didn't catch the flu.
Here, (e) clearly makes us doubt that John caught the flu in the ER - after all, if the ER was where he caught it, then we'd expect some of his coworkers to have it too.
(d) doesn't make us doubt the argument at all - just because there are other ways to catch the flu doesn't mean that the ER isn't a likely spot to pick it up.
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Stuart Kovinsky, BA LLB
Academic Co-ordinator
Kaplan Test Prep & Admissions
Toronto Office
1-800-KAP-TEST |
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adam007
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| Posted: Mon Apr 07, 2008 12:42 pm Post subject: |
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| Nikhil, Stuart - thank you very much! Very helpful! |
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cjiang16
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| Posted: Fri Apr 11, 2008 7:03 pm Post subject: |
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| Thanks. Nikhil |
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