Assumption CR

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cramya: Legendary Member; Posts: 2467; Joined: Thu Aug 28, 2008 6:14 pmFollowed by: 11 members; Thanked: 331 times

by cramya » Mon Mar 16, 2009 7:45 pm

Misrile, a tiny nation with extreme aridity, has surprised global agricultural community by developing a thriving citrus fruit industry. By using the nation's scarce supply of fresh water with maximum efficiency, farmers did the unthinkable. However, as the water demands of Misrile's growing population increases, the nation will inevitably need to import water from neighboring countries in order to maintain a thriving citrus fruit industry.
Which of the following is an assumption upon with the conclusion is based?
A. As water supplies in Misrile become tighter, the export price of its citrus fruits will increase, thereby justifying the expenditure of importing water.
B. Misrile cannot substantially increase its domestic supply of water by opening new desalinization plants on its coasts.
C. Neighboring nations are equally arid and will not export water to Misrile at a reasonable cost.
D. The people of Misrile can decrease the need for importing water by becoming more efficient in their use of water.
E. The best economic use of Misrile's land and scarce water supplies is to grow citrus fruits

I went with E but some of the user responses on the forum has been B

Source: another gmat forum

Guys/gals please chip in your thoughts.

Regards,
CR

Source: Beat The GMAT — Critical Reasoning | Mon Mar 16, 2009 7:45 pm

matterover: Junior | Next Rank: 30 Posts; Posts: 29; Joined: Wed Oct 24, 2007 9:12 pm; Thanked: 2 times

by matterover » Mon Mar 16, 2009 9:46 pm

the conclusion

However, as the water demands of Misrile's growing population increases, the nation will inevitably need to import water from neighboring countries in order to maintain a thriving citrus fruit industry.

(in brief) that Misrile has to import water ..
For assumption questions..try to weaken the argument.

Following are weaken
a) What if there is abundant untapped water resource in Misrile?

b) May be the people will become more responsible and start conserving water thereby not needing to import more.

c) may be the desalination plants are succesful in extracting the water from salt water from the coasts of Misrile..

As u notice that when you negate these weakening points, your assumptions begin revealing...

c) There is no way that desalination plants can be successful in extracting water from salt water from the coasts of misrile
This forms the Assumption ANSWER -- B.

My $0.02.

cramya: Legendary Member; Posts: 2467; Joined: Thu Aug 28, 2008 6:14 pmFollowed by: 11 members; Thanked: 331 times

by cramya » Mon Mar 16, 2009 9:50 pm

Matterover, I think u may be right. I may have missed the conclusion focusiing on the Citrus part rather than the water part.

Thanks buddy!

Hopefully others post their thought too.

Regards,
Cramya

S0laris: Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts; Posts: 131; Joined: Wed Feb 25, 2009 7:02 am; Location: Azerbaijan/Baku; Thanked: 2 times

by S0laris » Tue Mar 17, 2009 10:17 am

IMO E
because the conclusion use such extreme wordings as "the nation will inevitably need to import water in order to maintain industry" - I think that it means there is no way to abandone the fruit industry and distribute water among population, thus population depends on citrus industry at the most. Therefore, there is no way of better economic use of land and water supply - as E states

we are the champions !

kuldeep4gmat: Junior | Next Rank: 30 Posts; Posts: 16; Joined: Tue Mar 10, 2009 1:57 am

by kuldeep4gmat » Wed Mar 18, 2009 4:51 am

E. The best economic use of Misrile's land and scarce water supplies is to grow citrus fruits

E is too extreme.

how can we know what is the best use of its land..

[/b]

gmatad: Newbie | Next Rank: 10 Posts; Posts: 5; Joined: Sun Mar 15, 2009 9:55 pm

by gmatad » Wed Mar 18, 2009 11:01 pm

IMO, its E.

I think B is a weak choice as it assumes that the country has a coast (It may even be land locked, the passage only states that it has neigbors)

bmlaud: Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts; Posts: 174; Joined: Thu Jan 08, 2009 12:04 am; Thanked: 5 times; GMAT Score:620

by bmlaud » Thu Mar 19, 2009 8:49 am

Clear B

The argument assumes there aren't any other ways than importing water to meet the demand.

"Great works are performed not by strength but by perseverance."

Musicolo: Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts; Posts: 116; Joined: Sun Feb 01, 2009 10:56 am

by Musicolo » Thu Mar 19, 2009 12:02 pm

Clear E

cramya: Legendary Member; Posts: 2467; Joined: Thu Aug 28, 2008 6:14 pmFollowed by: 11 members; Thanked: 331 times

by cramya » Thu Mar 19, 2009 1:47 pm

Checked with Ian also.

OA is B

The reson being:

Conclusion : The nation will inevitably need to import water from neighboring countries

B is the best answer. In GMAT hence they say best. E may be the next in line I guess....

Thanks All.

Regards,
CR

ashley.com: Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts; Posts: 100; Joined: Tue Aug 05, 2014 4:32 am

by ashley.com » Sun May 15, 2016 3:20 am

Answer is clarly E

graem83d: Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts; Posts: 108; Joined: Tue Aug 05, 2014 3:00 am

by graem83d » Sun May 15, 2016 7:45 am

I believe the answer should be E

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