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Barron's tough critical reasoning question

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by fnufinka » Wed Sep 21, 2011 6:15 am
Scientists believe they have discovered the wreck of the USS Harvard, sunk by Japanese torpedoes during World War II. Their conclusions are drawn from underwater searches by mini-submarines of the area about 4 miles of Midway Island in the Pacific Ocean during what started out as offshore oil platform accident procedures. These are some military historians that are skeptical about the scientists'claim, on the basis that sophisticated sonar equipment has not identified the ship as, indeed, the Harvard.

Which of the following, if true, would weaken the historians'arguments?

A) Thorough searching by divers and bathyscopes has not located the wreck.
B) Three other ships were sunk in this area during World War II.
C) The ship's last known position was 20 miles east of Midway
D) The use of sonar only enables the user to identify the shape and dimension of a wreck.
E) It is not known whether the Harvard suffered much structural damage before being sunk.

I still do not understand, why the correct answer is c. Could anyone offer some logical explanation, please? Thank you!
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Source: — Critical Reasoning |

by sl750 » Wed Sep 21, 2011 7:12 am
Can you post their explanation? I picked D
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by David@VeritasPrep » Wed Sep 21, 2011 7:14 am
Is this transcribed correctly?? It seems a bit strange really. The wording does not feel like what would be expected. The last sentence is particularly strange.

Anyway we want to weaken the historians, who are skeptical that this is the USS Harvard.

As to choice C... well we can say that knowing that that the ship was last known to be 20 miles from Midway and it is now 4 miles from Midway does give the possibility that it could be this ship. Not sure this is a great choice, but I do know that A, B and E can be eliminated.

D is interesting because of the way the conclusion is worded. The Sonar maybe could not positively identify the ship if it only gives the shape and dimension - perhaps this is not enough information.

Not the greatest question I have ever read...if it is typed in correctly.
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by knight247 » Wed Sep 21, 2011 7:41 am
The answer is not C.It is D
Although I'm not very convinced by D.. It was the only answer choice left after I eliminated the rest.
(A)This only strengthens the historians argument. It states that inspite of thorough manual searching, the ship could not be found meaning the scientists claims are flawed.
(B)Again this strengthens the historians argument by suggesting that what the scientists claim to have found could be the wreck of any of the other three ships not the Harvard.
(C)Again, this strengthens the historians argument. Saying that it was 20 miles away from midway when being torpedoed makes it extremely unlikely that it traveled such a great distance while sinking. It basically implies that what the scientists found could be something else.
(E)This is extremely irrelevant. Doesn't strengthen nor weaken either parties claim.

That leaves only one option. Again, I'm not really convinced by it but all the others seem much weaker. What is the OA?
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