Critical Reasoning

It is widely assumed that a museum is helped financially when a generous patron donates a potential exhibit. In truth, however, donated objects require storage space, which is not free, and routine conservation, which is rather expensive. Therefore, such gifts exacerbate rather than lighten the demands made on a museum's financial resources.
Which of the following, if true, most seriously weakens the argument above?
(A) To keep patrons well disposed, a museum will find it advisable to put at least some donated objects on exhibit rather than merely in storage.
(B) The people who are most likely to donate valuable objects to a museum are also the people who are most likely to make cash gifts to it.
(C) A museum cannot save money by resorting to cheap storage under less than adequate conditions, because so doing would drive up the cost of conservation.
(D) Patrons expect a museum to keep donated objects in its possession rather than to raise cash by selling them.
(E) Objects donated by a patron to a museum are often of such importance that the museum would be obliged to add them to its collection through purchase if necessary.

OA is E . Why B is wrong ? I agree E is better than B but could not figure out a solid reason to remove it.

B is not correct because it is not talking about the "donation of a potential exhibit" rather it is talking about the kind of person who donates such an exhibit. If that person also donates money then the person is helpful, but the particular donation is not.

For example, my answer here might be helpful to you, so you can think of me as a helpful person, but an answer that I give to a different question might be something that you never even read, or (say it is not so) even confuses you! The argument is talking about a particular donation and the choice you mention is talking about the person who makes such a donation.

Does that help?

Yes, it does and again and again we come back to the same thing.. conclusion is king.. While re-reading very closely the conclusion after your analogy, it is apparent that conclusion is about extra burden put by those painting for the reasons described in the premises;however, with option B, they still remain a burden however we have found a remedy to deal with the burden , but that is not what we are interested in.

Question: What exercise/therapy can help to keep the focus the way CR questions do need? I am currently of the opinion that after an in depth analysis, I have got very good understanding and can see a visible improvement but remain scary of the language they use, sometimes that throws you off and imagine the same when you are in your last 10 to 15 questions of verbal.

This question was second last out of set of 20 questions, and i have already started following your exercise of writing answer choices to give brain some free/relaxing time.But still more you advance wit number of questions, mental fatigue plays some role to results. Will share my experience after final game .

Oh!! Now you know exactly why I always start my GMAT course with Veritas by telling students that I want to make so many things about what they do automatic.

You must have habits in life! What if you got into your car and had to re-learn what to do each time or every time you travel to work on the train you took a different route! Your brain would explode. Why do people want to make every question on the GMAT a unique experience?

You want to have the first 30 - 45 seconds even a minute of every question be automatic. When I see a critical reasoning this is what I do, and then this, and if it is a weaken question I do this and finally - maybe when you are down to the last two or three choices - you apply your full brain power for a few seconds.

You cannot have your brain going at top speed for a long period - it just does not work. The top scorers are those who are able to do things easily - for example translating into an equation comes naturally in problem solving, or identifying the conclusion in critical reasoning is automatic.

Then your brain is ready when the tough stuff comes up! Maybe for 15 to 20 minutes total out of each 75 you are really switched on top power. The rest of the time it flows naturally -- that is the path to scoring well and, maybe, even enjoying it a little....

Good question.

And David, classy stuff as always! (the second post to be more specific)

hi guys
can someone explain why A is wrong, my reasoning
Conclusion: gifts are more a financial burden to museums than financial relief
Premise: Storage is not free, Conservation is expensive.
we need to weaken the argument
to me option A does so telling that gift will not be store or conserved, but will be exibit. thus theirs exhibition can raise the money and help museums financially
what is wrong in my reasoning?
thanks

@David: this is a class response as always to the point and holistic. I have decided to be your guinea pig and follow your strategies to relax and to avoid tiredness. I will certainly share my experience. For the moment, I am integrating your ideas into my daily study routine.

@clock60:

(A) To keep patrons well disposed, a museum will find it advisable to put at least some donated objects on exhibit rather than merely in storage.

Actually you can address it in two ways :
1. The language of premise addresses what museum could do to solve this problem. We are not interested in that solution but rather the argument that such gifts are financial burden.
2. Second it qualifies it to some donated objects,so even if some exhibits could be placed on exhibition, for other we have burden.

If this answer choice has to be qualified under correct answer, it should say something of this sort in my opinion:

To keep patrons well disposed, these donated paintings are among the most essential items to be exhibited.

Here i am saying that these gifts are not burden but are necessary and ,therefore, should be accepted.

Since we are required to weaken the argument, you are being asked to pick a choice which does this -> It is not necessarily true that gifts cause huge financial strain on museums

A - Deals with keeping the patrons happy/favorably inclined by actually displaying their gifts -> has nothing to do with relieving financial strains

E - States that gifts from patrons are often so important that the museum would anyway be required to purchase - the fact that these objects are obtained for free relieves the museum of having to spend on procuring them

Hence gifts do not cause financial strains, at the very least on a relative note

GMATMadeEasy wrote:@clock60:

(A) To keep patrons well disposed, a museum will find it advisable to put at least some donated objects on exhibit rather than merely in storage.

Actually you can address it in two ways :
1. The language of premise addresses what museum could do to solve this problem. We are not interested in that solution but rather the argument that such gifts are financial burden.
2. Second it qualifies it to some donated objects,so even if some exhibits could be placed on exhibition, for other we have burden.

If this answer choice has to be qualified under correct answer, it should say something of this sort in my opinion:

To keep patrons well disposed, these donated paintings are among the most essential items to be exhibited.

Here i am saying that these gifts are not burden but are necessary and ,therefore, should be accepted.

hi GmatMadeEasy
thank you for reply, i got the point
and especially your rephrasing sounds very convincing

Tough one. My understanding of choice E is that the donated objected will raise the value of collection. Without them, the value of collection will decrease. Beside, these objects are free. So, they have more positive effects rather than negative ones. This is the correct answer.

This is very tough to me.