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Postal sẻvices

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by NSNguyen » Thu Aug 07, 2008 9:27 am
The postal service is badly mismanaged. Forty years ago, first-class letter delivery cost only three cents. Since then, the price has increased nearly tenfold, with an actual decrease in the speed and reliability of service.
Each of the following statements, if true, would tend to weaken the argument above EXCEPT:
(A) The volume of mail handled by the postal service has increased dramatically over the last forty years.
(B) Unprecedented increases in the cost of fuel for trucks and planes have put severe upward pressures on postal delivery costs.
(C) Private delivery services usually charge more than does the postal service for comparable delivery charges.
(D) The average delivery time for a first-class letter four decades ago was actually slightly longer than it is today.
(E) The average level of consumer prices overall has increased more than 300 percent over the last forty years.
Please share your idea and your reasoning :D
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by raunekk » Thu Aug 07, 2008 10:27 am
imo:C

OA??
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Re: Postal sẻvices

by kiranlegend » Thu Aug 07, 2008 12:09 pm
NSNguyen wrote:The postal service is badly mismanaged. Forty years ago, first-class letter delivery cost only three cents. Since then, the price has increased nearly tenfold, with an actual decrease in the speed and reliability of service.
Each of the following statements, if true, would tend to weaken the argument above EXCEPT:
(A) The volume of mail handled by the postal service has increased dramatically over the last forty years.
(B) Unprecedented increases in the cost of fuel for trucks and planes have put severe upward pressures on postal delivery costs.
(C) Private delivery services usually charge more than does the postal service for comparable delivery charges.
(D) The average delivery time for a first-class letter four decades ago was actually slightly longer than it is today.
(E) The average level of consumer prices overall has increased more than 300 percent over the last forty years.
IMO C
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by sibbineni » Thu Aug 07, 2008 5:30 pm
IMO E
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by SUSHMA50 » Thu Sep 18, 2008 6:19 am
The postal service is badly mismanaged. Forty years ago, first-class letter delivery cost only three cents. Since then, the price has increased nearly tenfold, with an actual decrease in the speed and reliability of service.
Each of the following statements, if true, would tend to weaken the argument above EXCEPT:
(A) The volume of mail handled by the postal service has increased dramatically over the last forty years.
(B) Unprecedented increases in the cost of fuel for trucks and planes have put severe upward pressures on postal delivery costs.
(C) Private delivery services usually charge more than does the postal service for comparable delivery charges.
(D) The average delivery time for a first-class letter four decades ago was actually slightly longer than it is today.
(E) The average level of consumer prices overall has increased more than 300 percent over the last forty years

IMO : E

The passage states that the rates have increased but the speed and reliability of service has reduced
A - Irrelevant
B - Weakens
C - Out of scope as we are not comparing private delivery service with postal services but that although the cost has increased the service has not.
D - Very specicfic to First class letter so omitted
E - shows that though the author is telling that the rate has increased in real terms it has not increased when compared to CPI.


Hoping this helps
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by gmat009 » Thu Sep 18, 2008 7:30 am
IMO C.
What's OA
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by nitin86 » Thu Sep 18, 2008 8:17 am
IMO D

E seems to weaken the argument. Argument says that postal service has reduced in performance and cost. E says that despite the increase in overall cost of 300 fold, postal service has only increased by 10 fold
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by niraj_a » Thu Sep 18, 2008 10:31 am
C for me too.
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Re: Postal sẻvices

by Stuart@KaplanGMAT » Thu Sep 18, 2008 12:43 pm
NSNguyen wrote:The postal service is badly mismanaged. Forty years ago, first-class letter delivery cost only three cents. Since then, the price has increased nearly tenfold, with an actual decrease in the speed and reliability of service.
Each of the following statements, if true, would tend to weaken the argument above EXCEPT:
(A) The volume of mail handled by the postal service has increased dramatically over the last forty years.
(B) Unprecedented increases in the cost of fuel for trucks and planes have put severe upward pressures on postal delivery costs.
(C) Private delivery services usually charge more than does the postal service for comparable delivery charges.
(D) The average delivery time for a first-class letter four decades ago was actually slightly longer than it is today.
(E) The average level of consumer prices overall has increased more than 300 percent over the last forty years.
Recognizing common argument types will save you a LOT of time on test day and really increase your accuracy.

This argument is causal. As with most causal arguments, the evidence describes a phenomenon and the conclusion is what the author thinks causes that phenomenon.

Evid: costs increased more than tenfold; decrease in speed and reliability of service.

Concl: postal service is badly mismanaged.

Put together in one sentence: poor management is the cause of postal price increases and a decrease in the level of service.

The most common ways to weaken a causal argument are to look for another cause or to break the connection between the stated cause and effect.

Since this is a "weaken EXCEPT" question, 4 of the choices will make us doubt that the issues are due to mismanagement. The correct choice with either strengthen the argument or be outside the scope (i.e. irrelevant).

a) dramatic increase in volume - that's another reason for what's happened. Weakens, therefore not correct.

b) behind the scenes costs have skyrocketed - that's another reason for what's happened. Weakens, therefore not correct.

c) private companies charge more for the same services - makes us doubt that postal service management is the reason for high prices. Weakens, therefore not correct.

d) average delivery time for 1 type of letter is slightly faster now than it used to be. This doesn't counter the FACT (remember, we always work on the basis that the evidence presented is true) that there's been "an actual decrease in the speed and reliability of service." Irrelevant, therefore it doesn't weaken: CORRECT.

e) there's been lots of inflation (although not as much as postal service has seen, which makes this choice tempting) - that's another reason for price increase. Weakens, therefore not correct.
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by aj5105 » Sat Sep 20, 2008 11:01 pm
Stuart,below are are the argument types.Have I missed anything?

Weaken
- Causal

Strengthen

Assumtion
- Support
- Defend

Inference

Explain

Flaw
Last edited by aj5105 on Thu Jun 04, 2009 7:47 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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by NSNguyen » Sat Sep 27, 2008 6:57 pm
IMO: C
however, OA: E
it is really hard to understand
Please share your idea and your reasoning :D
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by rajibgmat » Fri Nov 28, 2008 5:57 pm
NSNguyen wrote:IMO: C
however, OA: E
it is really hard to understand
Please refer to Stuart Kovinsky's explanantion above.
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by bsmed » Tue Jun 30, 2009 4:54 pm
I think the answer should be D.

Conclusion: Postal service is badly mismanaged
Premise:
- That price has increased
- Speed and reliability decreased

D. If the speed of the service was longer than it is today, then this won't weaken the conclusion because the postal service might be mismanaged. The statement won't help in arguing against the conclusion that postal service is badly mismanaged. [/list]
Last edited by bsmed on Fri Apr 01, 2011 4:24 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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by DeepakR » Tue Jun 30, 2009 6:47 pm
The postal service is badly mismanaged - Conclusion

Forty years ago, first-class letter delivery cost only three cents. Since then, the price has increased nearly tenfold - Premise P1

Actual decrease in the speed and reliability of service - Premise P2

So as Stuart mentioned, the argument concludes that postal service is mismanaged and this is because of increase in cost and decrease in speed and service.

The option E states that consumer prices have increased overall and this in turn has caused the mismanagement in postal service. So this definitely weakens the conclusion. So Answer cannot be E and it is C.

-Deepak
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by prateekmba » Wed Jul 06, 2011 3:22 am
I interpreted the passage as follows: The Dept. is poorly managed because In SPITE OF increase in cost, the services are declining.

Option E: The average level of consumer prices overall has increased more than 300 percent over the last forty years. -->

Original cost: 3 cents --> New Cost: 30 cents (ten folds); while

Assuming original value of 1 cent to 1 cent--> New value of 1 cent is 0.33 cents (1/300%).
Original Cost: 3 cents; New Cost = 30 cents * 1/300% = 10 cents

Therefore, the cost in real terms goes up: however, the services are going down.

Therefore, poorly managed, ==> strengthens.
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