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CR - Weakening the argument

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CR - Weakening the argument

by nishant1309 » Sat Mar 12, 2011 12:08 am
The financial losses last quarter were not caused by the recession. Instead, stockholders and customers were reacting to the news, released last week, that our CEO will soon be brought to trial on charges of fraud. Which of the following, if true, would most weaken the above claim?

A. Many businesses experienced significant losses last quarter due to the recession.

B. The last financial quarter ended more than two weeks ago.

C. Other businesses have experienced similar legal trouble without it affecting their finances.

D. Stockholders would likely have been suspicious of the CEO long before he was actually charged with fraud.

E. Many customers have said that the CEO's legal troubles have affected their perception of the company.

I will put OA later on after we have a few reasonable discussions on this question. My Choice: D.

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by HSPA » Sat Mar 12, 2011 12:15 am
A) good one
B) weird option... in no relation with this para
C) Other bussiness out of scope
D) not bad
E) not bad

A) is weakening the first line
D&E) The CEO is innocent ... can weaken this
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by AIM GMAT » Sat Mar 12, 2011 12:52 am
A. Many businesses experienced significant losses last quarter due to the recession. -- CORRECT , as it talks and confirms recession.

B. The last financial quarter ended more than two weeks ago. -- Irrelevant

C. Other businesses have experienced similar legal trouble without it affecting their finances. -- Out of scope to discuss legal probs of other businessess.

D. Stockholders would likely have been suspicious of the CEO long before he was actually charged with fraud. -- I feel this shud not be the answer bcoz it talk only in terms of stockholders and not customers. And having suspicion makes it bit irrelevant , i mean making such assumption should have some solid ground .

E. Many customers have said that the CEO's legal troubles have affected their perception of the company. --- Nah this aint weakening the argument .

So IMO A.
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by mundasingh123 » Sat Mar 12, 2011 6:51 am
Hi Can u please reveal the source ?
I Seek Explanations Not Answers
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by atulmangal » Sat Mar 12, 2011 7:14 am
Although i agree that, Op A confirms the recession but if you look at the premise 1---"The financial losses last quarter were not caused by the recession." This premise doesn't indicates that, since there was no recession hence recession was not a reason behind company's loss. The premise actually means that out of many possible reasons for the loss, the most common reason "THE RECESSION" is certainly not the reason. Secondly, in OP A many business doesn't mean that all type of business suffer loss in recession. if Op A have said that, "many similar businesses suffer loss because of recession" than that gonna make some sense...

IMO Op D...as it is somewhere negating the premise although it refers to only stockholders but still seems logical and correct

Wats the OA???
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by nishant1309 » Sat Mar 12, 2011 7:33 am
AIM GMAT wrote:A. Many businesses experienced significant losses last quarter due to the recession. -- CORRECT , as it talks and confirms recession.

B. The last financial quarter ended more than two weeks ago. -- Irrelevant

C. Other businesses have experienced similar legal trouble without it affecting their finances. -- Out of scope to discuss legal probs of other businessess.

D. Stockholders would likely have been suspicious of the CEO long before he was actually charged with fraud. -- I feel this shud not be the answer bcoz it talk only in terms of stockholders and not customers. And having suspicion makes it bit irrelevant , i mean making such assumption should have some solid ground .

E. Many customers have said that the CEO's legal troubles have affected their perception of the company. --- Nah this aint weakening the argument .

So IMO A.
@AIM GMAT: I guess we have to look for an option which undermines the relevance of CEO's fraud (the news released a week ago to which stockholders and customers reacted) with the financial losses in last quarter. Moreover it is explicitly mentioned that "The financial losses last quarter were not caused by the recession". So, A doesn't falls in line.
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by nishant1309 » Sat Mar 12, 2011 11:40 pm
nishant1309 wrote:
AIM GMAT wrote:A. Many businesses experienced significant losses last quarter due to the recession. -- CORRECT , as it talks and confirms recession.

B. The last financial quarter ended more than two weeks ago. -- Irrelevant

C. Other businesses have experienced similar legal trouble without it affecting their finances. -- Out of scope to discuss legal probs of other businessess.

D. Stockholders would likely have been suspicious of the CEO long before he was actually charged with fraud. -- I feel this shud not be the answer bcoz it talk only in terms of stockholders and not customers. And having suspicion makes it bit irrelevant , i mean making such assumption should have some solid ground .

E. Many customers have said that the CEO's legal troubles have affected their perception of the company. --- Nah this aint weakening the argument .

So IMO A.
@AIM GMAT: I guess we have to look for an option which undermines the relevance of CEO's fraud (the news released a week ago to which stockholders and customers reacted) with the financial losses in last quarter. Moreover it is explicitly mentioned that "The financial losses last quarter were not caused by the recession". So, A doesn't falls in line.
Alright...as i don't see anymore opinion building up, let me reveal the OA i.e.: B

Probably, the time gap between last quarter report (2 weeks ago) & news released (last week) undermines the inter-relevance of these two events.

Can anybody give a more valid explanation in its support?
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by atulmangal » Sun Mar 13, 2011 5:08 am
God, this is crazy man, its a damm god question...after u revealed the OA i checked again and find out the fact which i completely missed in my first attempt...OA has to be op B

Reasosns:
first the question is "would most weaken the above claim" means there can be many ans choices weakening this claim but one which will weaken most out of all is our answer choice...

secondly, the claim is actually a cause-effect relationship...
News releases LAST WEEK causes negative reaction of customers which in turn causes financial loss last quarter

in other words, X --> Y---->Z

Now in option B, "The last financial quarter ended more than two weeks ago." means LOSS already happened 2 weeks ago...means the LOSS happened one week before the news was released....means NEWS in any case can not cause the damage...as it occurred after the damage
we can say, Z did not happen because of X....

This ans choice as i stated earlier most seriously weakens the conclusion...other may have weaken but not as strong as OP B...

Hope this helps..
Last edited by atulmangal on Sun Mar 13, 2011 6:57 am, edited 1 time in total.
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by HSPA » Sun Mar 13, 2011 5:49 am
It seems I mistook claim for conclusion.

Before choices I interpreted only option A or a statement which proves CEO is innocent...

This is a real tough one man...Attacking this in <3min seems out of scope...
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by AIM GMAT » Sun Mar 13, 2011 8:24 am
OMG !!!!


Anyways whats the source ? Is it any official question ?
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by nishant1309 » Sun Mar 13, 2011 9:00 am
AIM GMAT wrote:OMG !!!!


Anyways whats the source ? Is it any official question ?
It is from one of the mocks i took in my institute....
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by GMATGuruNY » Sun Mar 13, 2011 3:11 pm
nishant1309 wrote:The financial losses last quarter were not caused by the recession. Instead, stockholders and customers were reacting to the news, released last week, that our CEO will soon be brought to trial on charges of fraud. Which of the following, if true, would most weaken the above claim?

A. Many businesses experienced significant losses last quarter due to the recession.

B. The last financial quarter ended more than two weeks ago.

C. Other businesses have experienced similar legal trouble without it affecting their finances.

D. Stockholders would likely have been suspicious of the CEO long before he was actually charged with fraud.

E. Many customers have said that the CEO's legal troubles have affected their perception of the company.

I will put OA later on after we have a few reasonable discussions on this question. My Choice: D.

Thanks!
A and B make an analogy between the business in the argument and other businesses. Be skeptical of an answer choice that makes an unsupported analogy. Nothing is offered to connect the business in the argument to these other businesses. Eliminate A and B.

D and E support the conclusion that the CEO's legal troubles have hurt the company. The word many (also used in incorrect answer choice A) is too vague. How many is many? Eliminate D and E.

The correct answer is B.

Answer choice B indicates that the financial losses had occurred before the CEO's legal troubles, weakening the conclusion that the financial losses had been caused by the CEO's legal troubles.
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