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Alphaville and Bentonville - Experts please help

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Alphaville and Bentonville - Experts please help

by rahulvsd » Mon Oct 24, 2011 8:04 am
More citizens of Alphaville tune in to nightly news programs than do citizens of Bentonville. Thus, citizens of Alphaville know more about global issues than do citizens of Bentonville.

The conclusion to the left is weakened by all of the following EXCEPT:
Choices
A The population of Alphaville is 2,000,000; the population of Bentonville is 1,000,000.
B Citizens of Bentonville are more likely to listen to news radio programs than are citizens of Alphaville.
C Citizens of Alphaville generally put the television on as background noise during dinner and chores, while citizens of Bentonville never watch television unless they are paying full attention to it.
D The nightly news programs in Alphaville are restricted to tabloid coverage of celebrities.
E Citizens in Bentonville can view nightly news programs only by purchasing cable television access.\

OA: EAm confused as to how E is a better answer than A. Please help
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by GmatKiss » Mon Oct 24, 2011 10:32 am
A weakens the conclusion.
Although not a firm point, E is the winner with POE.
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by rahulvsd » Mon Oct 24, 2011 6:20 pm
GMATkiss,

Can you explain how A weakens the conclusion?
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by kdraj » Mon Oct 24, 2011 7:27 pm
I am down between A and E.

But looking at E, subscriptions to nightly news would restrict Bentonville's viewers from watching the news. So this strengthens the conclustion.

I am not sure if A strengthens or weakens. Perhaps an expert can clarify this one.
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by nandy1984 » Tue Oct 25, 2011 3:16 am
rahulvsd wrote:More citizens of Alphaville tune in to nightly news programs than do citizens of Bentonville. Thus, citizens of Alphaville know more about global issues than do citizens of Bentonville.

The conclusion to the left is weakened by all of the following EXCEPT:
Choices
A The population of Alphaville is 2,000,000; the population of Bentonville is 1,000,000.
B Citizens of Bentonville are more likely to listen to news radio programs than are citizens of Alphaville.
C Citizens of Alphaville generally put the television on as background noise during dinner and chores, while citizens of Bentonville never watch television unless they are paying full attention to it.
D The nightly news programs in Alphaville are restricted to tabloid coverage of celebrities.
E Citizens in Bentonville can view nightly news programs only by purchasing cable television access.\

OA: EAm confused as to how E is a better answer than A. Please help
Hi,
why A is not the right answer. The passage says "More citizens of Alphaville tune in to nightly news programs than do citizens of Bentonville" that means we are talking about the people watching news programs within the city, but we cannot compare between the two cities. Its mostly like a percentage. More people can be (60% of the population or 70%,80%.....) so we cannot definetly support the above statement by saying that the more people of city A watch news programe by city B. Hope i am clear....We can support the statement if the info is....say 75000 people in city A watch news compared to 50000 people of city B. If this is the case then definetly the statements supports the above argument.

I tried my best to put my understanding in to words... Thanks
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by vaibhavgupta » Tue Oct 25, 2011 5:29 am
rahulvsd wrote:More citizens of Alphaville tune in to nightly news programs than do citizens of Bentonville. Thus, citizens of Alphaville know more about global issues than do citizens of Bentonville.

The conclusion to the left is weakened by all of the following EXCEPT:
Choices
A The population of Alphaville is 2,000,000; the population of Bentonville is 1,000,000.
B Citizens of Bentonville are more likely to listen to news radio programs than are citizens of Alphaville.
C Citizens of Alphaville generally put the television on as background noise during dinner and chores, while citizens of Bentonville never watch television unless they are paying full attention to it.
D The nightly news programs in Alphaville are restricted to tabloid coverage of celebrities.
E Citizens in Bentonville can view nightly news programs only by purchasing cable television access.\

OA: EAm confused as to how E is a better answer than A. Please help
Reached at E through POE. as far as A is concerned. it does weaken the conclusion. Since while the number could be more, the proportion is a lot less.
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by tuanquang269 » Fri Nov 18, 2011 6:32 am
The argument said more citizens in A town watch news program than in B'town. Choice A state the population in A town is morn than B town. So, the comparison is incompatible. My confuse when POE is the last 2 choice. D and E, finally, I choose E.

D also state that the citizens in A'town was restricted when watching news, their chances to know about global issues will be restricted. So, weaken.

The best choice here is E
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by HSPA » Fri Nov 18, 2011 6:42 am
A is wrong because you cannot compare apples to oranges and draw conclusions based on it.

town A has 200 people so considering a 51% will give you 102 people
town O has 100 people so considering a 51% will give you 51 people

Now you cannot equate both percentages though they are equal in number.
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by VivianKerr » Fri Nov 18, 2011 11:17 am
Conclusion: A-citizens know more about global issues than B-citizens

Evidence: A-citizens watch more news

Assumptions: The news A-citizens watch is about global issues; B-citizens don't get more news from other sources

Rephrase: What does NOT weaken? Look for the choice that STRENGTHENS.

Prediction: Anything that shows A watches more global-news, or that B has no other sources for news.

The answer is E.

A -- this is irrelevant -- just because A has more people does not necessarily mean they are proportionally better-educated about global-news
B -- this would WEAKEN, since it gives another way for B-citizens to get news
C -- this would WEAKEN, since it implies A-citizens aren't paying attention
D -- this would WEAKEN, since it shows that A-citizens aren't getting global-news
E -- this would STRENGTHEN, since it shows that B-citizens' access to at least one conduit for global-news is limited
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by gunjan1208 » Fri Nov 18, 2011 9:23 pm
Rahul VSD,

I was also trapped by A. For sure your logic is correct for A....A pile on the number of the people seeing TV does not enhance their knowledge about global issues. Thus this is irrelevent.

In choice E, if people have limited access to the news, they would perhaps use is limited also. This strengthen the argument

Now we need to pick between A and E. E wins becasue it supports the argument and A is just irrelevant. Has the option E would not be there, A makes sense.

HTH!

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by tuanquang269 » Sat Nov 19, 2011 6:04 am
VivianKerr wrote: Rephrase: What does NOT weaken? Look for the choice that STRENGTHENS.


A -- this is irrelevant -- just because A has more people does not necessarily mean they are proportionally better-educated about global-news
E -- this would STRENGTHEN, since it shows that B-citizens' access to at least one conduit for global-news is limited
In this case, I don't agree with you "What does NOT weaken means that answer have to be STRENGTHEN"

In some way, answer choice A still weaken the argument, it's not irrelevant. Your reasoning seems weakening the argument in my thought.
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by VivianKerr » Fri Nov 25, 2011 11:05 am
@Tuanquang Irrelevant choices are never correct in CR.

The number of people is irrelevant, since the conclusion's focus is on how much the people in each town KNOW. More people does not mean they know more. Look at HSPA's comment.
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by tuanquang269 » Wed Nov 30, 2011 2:45 am
HSPA wrote:A is wrong because you cannot compare apples to oranges and draw conclusions based on it.

town A has 200 people so considering a 51% will give you 102 people
town O has 100 people so considering a 51% will give you 51 people

Now you cannot equate both percentages though they are equal in number.
VivianKerr wrote:@Tuanquang Irrelevant choices are never correct in CR.

The number of people is irrelevant, since the conclusion's focus is on how much the people in each town KNOW. More people does not mean they know more. Look at HSPA's comment.
Thanks for explanation.
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by garryrother » Tue Sep 11, 2012 10:53 am
@VivianKerr.
Your explanation appears to contradict the question stem:

"The conclusion to the left is weakened by all of the following EXCEPT:"

The question stem indicates that except 1 remaining 4 answers should weaken the conclusion. Based on your explanation, it can be deduced that at least 2 answer choice do not weaken the conclusion and hence the correct answer can be either of the 2.

Another example of poorly constructed Grockit's practice problem.
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by ihatemaths » Wed Sep 12, 2012 2:49 am
@vivian D does not weaken in my opinion it's just irrelevant . so by process of elimination we can get E . even E i wouldn't say strengthen's it's just a possibility that if access was given they would be exposed to global news.
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