Critical Reasoning

In a recent survey, nine out of ten people using Slim-Ease for 2 weeks as directed reported that they lost weight during this period. This fact surely proves that Slim-Ease is effective for anyone wanting to shed some unwanted pounds.

The claim made above depends on which of the following assumptions?
A. The survey participants were not using Slim-Ease immediately prior to the 2 week period.
B. The survey participants did not exercise during the 2 week period
C. The survey participants were over weight prior to the 2 week period.
D. The survey participants' dietary habits were otherwise similar during the 2 week period as prior to that period.
E. No other product is more effective than Slim-Ease to help lose weight.

hundred percent D.

bignasty666 wrote:hundred percent D.

Could you give your reason?
What is the difference between B and D?
I think both dietary and exercise should remain unchanged to make the argument strong.
(B) If they excercise during the 2 week period, the weight loss can be due to excercise.

Spring2009 wrote:In a recent survey, nine out of ten people using Slim-Ease for 2 weeks as directed reported that they lost weight during this period. This fact surely proves that Slim-Ease is effective for anyone wanting to shed some unwanted pounds.

The claim made above depends on which of the following assumptions?
A. The survey participants were not using Slim-Ease immediately prior to the 2 week period.
B. The survey participants did not exercise during the 2 week period
C. The survey participants were over weight prior to the 2 week period.
D. The survey participants' dietary habits were otherwise similar during the 2 week period as prior to that period.
E. No other product is more effective than Slim-Ease to help lose weight.

My answer may sound pretty offtrack, but I will go with E.
Let me give my reasons:
A --> This may not be the answer (Gut feeling). The person is not bound to assume this or not assume this fact. In both the ways, Slim-Ease is good, right? So it doesn't matter.
B --> This sounds good to me. So I kept this at back of my mind for possible answer. I will come to this later.
C --> This doesn't matter, whether they were overweight or not, their weight got reduced.
D --> This sounds good to me. So keep ths also as a possible answer along with B.
E --> This answer is good too. Because the assumption is that only Easy-Weight can help reducing the weight. May be, if the users used any other company's product, they would have got the same result.

So now we are left with B, C and E.
If you see, B and C are both similar statements. So if B is right, then C also should be correct and vice-versa.
There is one more point to capture here. Author is saying :"nine out of ten people using Slim-Ease for 2 weeks as directed". These directions can have diets or exercise associated with it. So the choices B and C can also be wrong.

This leaves us with only E to be correct and that's how I arrived at E.

What's the OA.

riteshbindal wrote:

Spring2009 wrote:In a recent survey, nine out of ten people using Slim-Ease for 2 weeks as directed reported that they lost weight during this period. This fact surely proves that Slim-Ease is effective for anyone wanting to shed some unwanted pounds.

The claim made above depends on which of the following assumptions?
A. The survey participants were not using Slim-Ease immediately prior to the 2 week period.
B. The survey participants did not exercise during the 2 week period
C. The survey participants were over weight prior to the 2 week period.
D. The survey participants' dietary habits were otherwise similar during the 2 week period as prior to that period.
E. No other product is more effective than Slim-Ease to help lose weight.

My answer may sound pretty offtrack, but I will go with E.
Let me give my reasons:
A --> This may not be the answer (Gut feeling). The person is not bound to assume this or not assume this fact. In both the ways, Slim-Ease is good, right? So it doesn't matter.
B --> This sounds good to me. So I kept this at back of my mind for possible answer. I will come to this later.
C --> This doesn't matter, whether they were overweight or not, their weight got reduced.
D --> This sounds good to me. So keep ths also as a possible answer along with B.
E --> This answer is good too. Because the assumption is that only Easy-Weight can help reducing the weight. May be, if the users used any other company's product, they would have got the same result.

So now we are left with B, C and E.
If you see, B and C are both similar statements. So if B is right, then C also should be correct and vice-versa.
There is one more point to capture here. Author is saying :"nine out of ten people using Slim-Ease for 2 weeks as directed". These directions can have diets or exercise associated with it. So the choices B and C can also be wrong.

This leaves us with only E to be correct and that's how I arrived at E.

What's the OA.

You said that if the users used any other products, they might get the same result. This might be true, but E just mentions "no other product is more effective", it doesn't mention if users didn't use any other product during the 2 week periods.
BTW, E is not the OA.

IMO - A

The argument says, that Slim ease is effective within the 2 weeks period. what if the participants were taking slim ease prior to that period. It means slim ease may not be effective in the 2 weeks period.

This is part of the test 1 of Peterson master GMAT 2010
the answer is D. it considers past as well as the present 2 week period.
after being confused between B and D, i had given into A, but the OA is D. and I agree with the explanation given in the book.