Bible telling that choice is irrelevant/strengthening

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High school students who feel that they are not succeeding in high school often drop out before graduating and go to work. Last year, however the city's high school dropout rate was significantly lower than the previous year's rate. This is encouraging evidence that the program instituted two years ago to improve the morale of high school students has begun to take effect to reduce dropouts.

Which one of the following, if true about the last year, most seriously weakens the argument?

(A) There was a recession that caused a high level of unemployment in the city.
(B) The morale of students who dropped out of high school had been low even before they reached high school.
(C) As in the preceeding year, more high school students remained in school than dropped out.
(D) High schools in the city established placement offices to assist their graduates in obtaining employment.
(E) The antidropout program was primarily aimed at improving students' morale in those high schools with the highest dropout rates.

The answer given is A, and although this choice seems to be on the edge, is certainly the best choice.
However my question is not regarding the answer choice A. But an explantion given in the CR bible regarding choice B.
"At best, the answer choice is irrelevant. At worst, this answer confirms that some of the high school students had low morale, and in that sense, the answer strengthens the argument."

Premise:
High school students feeling that they are not succeeding(demoralized) - going to work.
Premise:
Last year, dropout rate plumetted compared to previous years
Conclusion:
The morale improvement drive has started to show good results, dropouts have decreased.

choice B says that morale of the few students who dropped out was already quite low:
its possible that many students who had a low morale might have dropped out even before reaching high shcool, which would explain the low dropout.
eg: out of 100 say 70 highschool students dropped out in the past,
This year 20 of 50 highschool students dropped out. ( 50 had dropped out even before reacing high school)

Why and how is the bible telling that this choice is irrelevant or strengthening the argument??
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Source: — Critical Reasoning |

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by stormier » Wed Jan 05, 2011 6:24 am
arora007 wrote:High school students who feel that they are not succeeding in high school often drop out before graduating and go to work. Last year, however the city's high school dropout rate was significantly lower than the previous year's rate. This is encouraging evidence that the program instituted two years ago to improve the morale of high school students has begun to take effect to reduce dropouts.

Conclusion - Program instituted 2 years ago to improve moral of students has begun to take effect (since they did not drop out). The conclusion is about students who did not drop out, and the argument is about a cause that led them to stay in school.

Choice B is about moral of students who dropped out of high school and is thus irrelevant to the conclusion about student who did not drop out.
. Also if the moral had already been low, and they still decided to stay in school, - implying a decrease in dropout rate despite starting with a low moral - it certainly seems to strengthen the conclusion that the program is successful in improving the moral of the students to help them stay in school

Which one of the following, if true about the last year, most seriously weakens the argument?

(A) There was a recession that caused a high level of unemployment in the city.
(B) The morale of students who dropped out of high school had been low even before they reached high school.
(C) As in the preceeding year, more high school students remained in school than dropped out.
(D) High schools in the city established placement offices to assist their graduates in obtaining employment.
(E) The antidropout program was primarily aimed at improving students' morale in those high schools with the highest dropout rates.

The answer given is A, and although this choice seems to be on the edge, is certainly the best choice.
However my question is not regarding the answer choice A. But an explantion given in the CR bible regarding choice B.
"At best, the answer choice is irrelevant. At worst, this answer confirms that some of the high school students had low morale, and in that sense, the answer strengthens the argument."

Premise:
High school students feeling that they are not succeeding(demoralized) - going to work.
Premise:
Last year, dropout rate plumetted compared to previous years
Conclusion:
The morale improvement drive has started to show good results, dropouts have decreased.

choice B says that morale of the few students who dropped out was already quite low:
its possible that many students who had a low morale might have dropped out even before reaching high shcool, which would explain the low dropout.
eg: out of 100 say 70 highschool students dropped out in the past,
This year 20 of 50 highschool students dropped out. ( 50 had dropped out even before reacing high school)

Why and how is the bible telling that this choice is irrelevant or strengthening the argument??
Last edited by stormier on Wed Jan 05, 2011 8:15 am, edited 3 times in total.

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by mundasingh123 » Wed Jan 05, 2011 6:29 am
Hi . whats the source ?

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by arora007 » Wed Jan 05, 2011 8:41 am
Powerscore Critical reasoning bible. I guess this is a must do book...like the Manhattan SC book.
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by arora007 » Wed Jan 05, 2011 8:44 am
stormier , yeah got it!! thanks you nailed it!! Bingo!!
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by mundasingh123 » Fri Jan 07, 2011 4:01 am
it really took a lot of analysis to gauge the validity of choice B

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by mundasingh123 » Fri Jan 07, 2011 4:39 am
I think u can eliminate B straight because of "This is encouraging evidence that the program instituted two years ago to improve the morale of high school students has begun to take effect to reduce dropouts. "The bolded portion is the key to elimination