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by himu » Tue Dec 11, 2012 1:48 am
Political Analyst: Because our city is a border city, illegal immigration is an important issue in the current race for mayor. Of the two candidates for mayor, one supports a plan that would attempt to deport the city's 9,000 illegal immigrants and the other does not. Surveys consistently show that about 60% of the city's residents are opposed to the plan, while about 35% are in support of the plan. Therefore, the candidate who does not support the plan will win the election for mayor.

All of the following statements weaken the analyst's argument, EXCEPT:

In the city at issue, most voters make their voting decisions based on the candidates' positions on abortion.
Of the 35% of residents who support the plan, some are willing to consider alternate plans for addressing illegal immigration.
Many of the residents who oppose the plan are not registered voters.
The candidate who supports the plan is the incumbent mayor, and has been elected to four consecutive terms despite taking controversial positions on many important issues.
Just under 30% of the city's residents are illegal immigrants who cannot vote.
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Source: — Critical Reasoning |

by The Iceman » Tue Dec 11, 2012 3:26 am
IMO B
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by Kasia@EconomistGMAT » Tue Dec 11, 2012 4:03 am
Let's break down the argument.
Premise 1 - illegal immigration is an important issue
Premise 2 - first candidate wants to deport 9000 immigrants and the other one does not
Premise 3 - 60% of residents are opposed to this plan, 35% support it
Conclusion - the candidate who is against this plan is going to win

We need to find the statement that strengthens our conclusion.
A - irrelevant, if residents choose a candidate based on positions concerning other controversial issues, any of the candidates can win so this statement weakens the conclusion
B - correct, this statement strengthens the conclusion because maybe even more people will not support the plan
C - this statement weakens the conclusion as we don't know whether the number of registered voters who oppose the plan will exceed the number of the ones who support it
D - incorrect, the candidate who supports the plan has already been elected the mayor despite his controversial views so this might happen again this time
E - incorrect, the number of illegal immigrants might not be large enough to exceed the number of supporters of the plan
Last edited by Kasia@EconomistGMAT on Tue Dec 11, 2012 5:32 am, edited 2 times in total.
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by himu » Tue Dec 11, 2012 4:10 am
HI Kasia,

But this is : All of the following statements weaken the analyst's argument, EXCEPT :(
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by Kasia@EconomistGMAT » Tue Dec 11, 2012 5:27 am
Exactly, so you need to find the answer choice that does NOT weaken the conclusion, in other words the one that STRENGTHENS it.
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by Practicegmat » Tue Dec 11, 2012 7:44 pm
What I believe is : Does not Weaken answer means it should not weaken the argument.

We cannot weaken an argument by :
1) mentioning something irrelevant
2) strengthening the argument

In that way this question has 2 correct choices :

A - IRRELEVANT
B - STENGTHEN

Please let me know where I am wrong
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