undermines the conclusion

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undermines the conclusion

by gmatnmein2010 » Tue Feb 09, 2010 10:41 pm
Last year in the United States, women who ran for state and national offices were about as likely to win as men. However, only about fifteen percent of the candidates for these offices were women. Therefore, the reason there are so few women who win elections for these offices is not that women have difficulty winning elections but that so few women want to run.
Which of the following, if true, most seriously undermines the conclusion given?
(A) Last year the proportion of women incumbents who won reelection was smaller than the proportion of men incumbents who won reelection.
(B) Few women who run for state and national offices run against other women.
(C) Most women who have no strong desire to be politicians never run for state and national offices.
(D) The proportion of people holding local offices who are women is smaller than the proportion of people holding state and national offices who are women.
(E) Many more women than men who want to run for state and national offices do not because they cannot get adequate funding for their campaigns.

My ans was C but I am wrng again y????

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by money9111 » Tue Feb 09, 2010 10:50 pm
Well the conclusion is that because so few women want to run.... this explains why there are so few women who win elections. If i'm reading this correctly. So which statement undermines this conclusion?

I don't think it's A, C, D, or E. I'm going to go with B.

What's the correct answer?
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by thephoenix » Tue Feb 09, 2010 11:08 pm
Conclusion: the reason there are so few women who win elections for these offices is that few women want to run.
To weaken it we need to show that there is another reason few women who win elections
a)it's a kind of shift of scope(refer Kaplan) ans here its talking about REELECTION
b)irrelevant
c)supports the conclusion , as it says that few women desired to run for election

d) its discussing a diff group of people shift of scope

e) bingo yes it gives another reason for explaining that y few women are winning its bcoz of less fund for campaign

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by KapTeacherEli » Thu Feb 11, 2010 7:53 pm
thepheonix is right--it's a shift scope.

The key is that the conclusion introduces a term mentioned nowhere in the evidence: what women "want." Our evidence merely discusses what women do in reality; the author isn't actually backing up his claim about the desire to run with anything directly relating to that.

So, we fill in the gaps. We identify the assumption, the data that must be true but that the author omits, and work from there. In this case, for women the smaller number of woman candidates to prove that a smaller number want to be candidates, we must assume that there are no other reasons for the smaller number of female candidates.

We're trying to undermine the conclusion--and on the GMAT, that means undermine the assumption that the conclusion relies on. So which answer choice undermines the assumption that there is no reason, aside from lack of desire, to explain the lack of female candidates (and therefore lack of female politicians?) (E), which provides a completely different reason for the lack of candidates.
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by komal » Sun Feb 14, 2010 8:09 am
Last year in the United States, women who ran for state and national offices were about as likely to win as men. However, only about fifteen percent of the candidates for these offices were women. Therefore, the reason there are so few women who win elections for these offices is not that women have difficulty winning elections but that so few women want to run.
Which of the following, if true, most seriously undermines the conclusion given?
(A) Last year the proportion of women incumbents who won reelection was smaller than the proportion of men incumbents who won reelection.
Incorrect : Issue here is not re-election. Eliminated.

(B) Few women who run for state and national offices run against other women.
Incorrect : Issue is not Who v/s Who .... Issue is why women have difficulty winning.

(C) Most women who have no strong desire to be politicians never run for state and national offices.
Incorrect : Does not help to undermine the conclusion that women have difficulty winning.

(D) The proportion of people holding local offices who are women is smaller than the proportion of people holding state and national offices who are women.
Incorrect : This is irrelevant to the scope of the argument.

(E) Many more women than men who want to run for state and national offices do not because they cannot get adequate funding for their campaigns.
Correct : This undermines the conclusion by giving another cause (lack of funds) for the stated effect (difficulty for women in winning)

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by iamharish » Mon Nov 15, 2010 2:13 am
(A) Last year the proportion of women incumbents who won reelection was smaller than the proportion of men incumbents who won reelection.
[Correct: Re-elections are still elections. And we can see here that smaller women proportion actually won. Hence weakens the conclusion.]
(B) Few women who run for state and national offices run against other women.
[Incorrect: No issue of winning loosing here at all]
(C) Most women who have no strong desire to be politicians never run for state and national offices.
[Incorrect: It actually in some way strengthens the argument by quoting lack of desire]
(D) The proportion of people holding local offices who are women is smaller than the proportion of people holding state and national offices who are women.
[Incorrect: Not relevent]
(E) Many more women than men who want to run for state and national offices do not because they cannot get adequate funding for their campaigns.
[Incorrect: Strengthens the argument]

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by mk101 » Mon Nov 22, 2010 6:26 pm
The statement relates women not winning elections to their desire of running for the elections.

A. incorrect -out of scope..talks about reelections and hence cant be the right answer. Moreover, this option talks about onyl one year, i.e. last year- we can not generalise any thing from last years data alone

B. Incorrect - talking about women wanting or not wanting to run against other women - out of scope of the argument again.

C. Incorrect - This option is merely a reproduction of the idea mentioned in the passage itself.

D. Incorrect - this is not concerned with the argument.

E. correct - this option correctly tells us a difficulty experienced by women in running for elections and hence ultimately winning elections.
gmatnmein2010 wrote:Last year in the United States, women who ran for state and national offices were about as likely to win as men. However, only about fifteen percent of the candidates for these offices were women. Therefore, the reason there are so few women who win elections for these offices is not that women have difficulty winning elections but that so few women want to run.
Which of the following, if true, most seriously undermines the conclusion given?
(A) Last year the proportion of women incumbents who won reelection was smaller than the proportion of men incumbents who won reelection.
(B) Few women who run for state and national offices run against other women.
(C) Most women who have no strong desire to be politicians never run for state and national offices.
(D) The proportion of people holding local offices who are women is smaller than the proportion of people holding state and national offices who are women.
(E) Many more women than men who want to run for state and national offices do not because they cannot get adequate funding for their campaigns.

My ans was C but I am wrng again y????

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by anirudhbhalotia » Fri Dec 03, 2010 1:17 am
I am not sure between A and E.

But seeing the replies, it seems E is the correct answer?

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by kt00381n » Tue Dec 07, 2010 7:00 pm
E for sure, since undermines conclusion

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by aardvax » Wed Dec 15, 2010 7:26 am
Conclusion :
the reason there are so few women who win elections for these offices is not that women have difficulty winning elections but that so few women want to run.

E states that many women want to run however
because they cannot get adequate funding for their campaigns they do not..(so women who run, might have difficulty in winning the elections also)
It can be an alternate reason for their low winning numbers.

Therefore E is the answer.

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by artistocrat » Thu Dec 16, 2010 11:58 pm
The conclusion is that women don't WANT to run for office. Choice E tells us that women WANT to but cannot.

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by prachich1987 » Fri Dec 17, 2010 12:11 am
What's the OA????

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by ikaplan » Fri Dec 17, 2010 1:44 am
I managed to nail this one by following this strategy.

The conclusion states "Therefore, the reason there are so few women who win elections for these offices is not that women have difficulty winning elections but that so few women want to run."

Step 1: Identify the conclusion (because this is a weaken question)
Step 2: this is a cause and effect relationship so try to diagram the conclusion

few women WANT to run ---> few women win

Step 3: look at the diagram and identify a key word here; in our case, the key word is WANT

Step 4: since the argument asks us to weaken the conclusion, find the opposite of the key word- in our case "DO NOT WANT" (if we were asked to strengthen- the key word would be WANT IT MORE THAN WE CAN IMAGINE)

Step 5: look at the answer choices with "DO NOT WANT" in your mind
Step 6: eliminate all answer choices that do not refer to the keyword

Therefore, IMO the correct answer is E.

I hope this helps.

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by tomada » Fri Dec 24, 2010 2:09 pm
The issue is not that women have difficulty winning, which even the author acknowledges.
komal wrote:Last year in the United States, women who ran for state and national offices were about as likely to win as men. However, only about fifteen percent of the candidates for these offices were women. Therefore, the reason there are so few women who win elections for these offices is not that women have difficulty winning elections but that so few women want to run.
Which of the following, if true, most seriously undermines the conclusion given?
(A) Last year the proportion of women incumbents who won reelection was smaller than the proportion of men incumbents who won reelection.
Incorrect : Issue here is not re-election. Eliminated.

(B) Few women who run for state and national offices run against other women.
Incorrect : Issue is not Who v/s Who .... Issue is why women have difficulty winning.

(C) Most women who have no strong desire to be politicians never run for state and national offices.
Incorrect : Does not help to undermine the conclusion that women have difficulty winning.

(D) The proportion of people holding local offices who are women is smaller than the proportion of people holding state and national offices who are women.
Incorrect : This is irrelevant to the scope of the argument.

(E) Many more women than men who want to run for state and national offices do not because they cannot get adequate funding for their campaigns.
Correct : This undermines the conclusion by giving another cause (lack of funds) for the stated effect (difficulty for women in winning)
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by pavitkumar » Thu Jan 13, 2011 4:09 pm
Without any doubt, the answer is E!!