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a cr from gmatclub

by diebeatsthegmat » Mon Jan 17, 2011 8:44 am
Elderly women who have suffered heart attacks are five times more likely to develop dementia than are other elderly women. Therefore, steps taken to prevent heart attacks, such as dieting, may also prevent dementia. Other studies have shown vision loss to be more common among elderly women who have suffered heart attacks. Thus, demented elderly women are much more likely to suffer from vision loss than are other elderly women.

The statement highlighted in boldface plays which of the following roles in the argument?

It is an assumption made by the author in constructing the argument.
It contradicts part of the author's conclusion.
It is the main conclusion to which the author is proceeding.
It acts as the principal piece of evidence for the conclusion that the author draws.
It is a conclusion drawn by the author but not relevant to the main point.

[spoiler]i chose E but they said the answer is D and other website i found said the answer is A and for me, A and D cant work. what is your idea?[/spoiler]
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by towerSpider » Mon Jan 17, 2011 10:29 am
In my opinion C
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by MoeLuvsMoney » Mon Jan 17, 2011 11:09 am
I going with E on this one.
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by Adam@Knewton » Mon Jan 17, 2011 12:57 pm
Hmmm... I researched the origin of this question on GMATClub and it doesn't seem to have ever been posted with an official answer OR with a source. So I question the reliability of the question. There are clearly two conclusions and they don't really relate to one another. Those who assume that the latter conclusion is the "main point" as opposed to the former are in error, because the GMAT regularly puts conclusions at the beginning or middle of an Argument. Furthermore, each Argument is flawed; this would be a far more appropriate stimulus for a Strengthener or Weakener targeting one of the two parts of the Argument. As a result, I doubt the legitimacy of this question and I'm not sure it would pass muster on the GMAT.

That being said, You are correct, and E, if anything, is the best answer. The reason for this is that the Argument makes sense without the point about preventing dimentia. The first sentence tells us that women with heart attacks tend to develop dimentia; the third sentence tells us that women with heart attacks are also more common to suffer vision loss; the final Conclusion connects these elderly women with dimentia to those with vision loss. As a result, the intermediate conclusion is really a digression from this line of reasoning, supporting E. Choice D is completely wrong because the bolded statement has no effect on the other Conclusion in the Argument, and choice A can never be correct, because by definition assumptions are unstated and can never appear in the stimulus itself.

So, in conclusion, I agree with your answer choice, but I do not believe this issue will arise on test day because I do not think that this is a valid question as writen.
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