IMO D.

IMO OP B and Op D both are same and both should be the answer, though i'm sure u must be having OP D as your answer.


I'm interested to know is this an official question??? doesn't seem like an official one. IMO this is a bad question and seems like the question maker's only intention was to confuse the reader with different - different words rather than testing the conceptual knowledge of the reader. So far i solved atleast 1000 questions in CR...what does this "second-premise" premise refer to???? Strange...isn't it???? First BOLD FACE is definitely a PREMISE and the argument includes 3- premises in total. Though, this part (see below) is a kind off sub-conclusion but we count it as premise only.

"The survival of the publishing industry depends upon the existence of a public who will buy the printed word in the form of newspapers, books and magazines."

Now, if the question maker is interested in the order the premises are appearing, then the FIRST BOLD FACE is a SECOND-PREMISE. But, this term "second-premise" sounds absurd.

The second bold face is definitely the MAIN CONCLUSION of the ARGUMENT. We can call INFERENCE AS CONCLUSION ALSO.

If u compare Op B and Op D, the language is almost same. "premise is always considered true" and this is not a weakening question. Saying "The first is the fact that must be true" in Op D doesn't give it an extra credit over Op B.

WHAT'S THE SOURCE OF THIS QUESTION???

Hey gmat25,

Thanks for the invitation to chime in on this one - and I agree wholeheartedly with you that this isn't a particularly well-written question so I wouldn't worry too much about it.

CR arguments have premises (which can be called facts) and conclusions. And since facts can work together in any order to arrive at a conclusion it's really strange to call anything a second-premise. You could as easily say:

X is true and Y is true, so Z must also be true
Y is true and X is also true, so Z must also be true
Z must be true because X and Y are each true.
X is true, so Z must be true because we also know that Y is true

And the logic in all of those is the same. Premise X and Premise Y lead to the Conclusion Z. The order in which the sentences are arranged really doesn't matter, so I wouldn't expect to see the term "second-premise" anywhere on an official question.

Similarly, the answer choice that "the first is the fact that must be true" is off. First of all, there's no "the" fact. In any argument there's the potential for multiple facts so you'd have to say "a" fact. And since facts are, by definition, true, the GMAT would never ask you to determine whether a fact must be true or not.

So...all told this question doesn't really hold up to the standards of an official question and I wouldn't worry much about studying from this one.

Hey Brian,

Thanks a lot for your response and sealing a tag on this one as a BAD QUESTION.

Got a PM on this one, seems I am late to the party! You guys have already sniffed out the bad question.

Let me echo what Brian has said, this is almost a parody of a question the way that the "Colbert Report" is a parody of news in the United States.

People often say that critical reasoning is convoluted and hard to understand. Often on the GMAT it is actually straightforward and logical.

The answer choices on this question are like something that would be made up to poke fun at critical reasoning.

As Brian has indicated there is no difference between and fact and a premise as these are the same and since all premises must be accepted as true then every premise is a fact that must be true. Hence the answer choices are meaningless as to the first portion.

The second portion has options for "inference" and "conclusion" as commonly used on the GMAT these are the same so no distinction there. And the "reasonably drawn" "correctly drawn" and "must be drawn" is the strangest stuff I have ever seen.

Yes, I will say it - probably top 5 weirdest question I have ever seen that relates to the GMAT. Needless to say GMAT25 your instincts were right.

AS A TAKE AWAY remember, only the Official GMAT questions trump your own instincts. If it truly an Official Question then you must understand it even if you do not like it. Any other question, even if it is written by me, I will tell you that if you do not like it - trust yourself!! You are a better judge than you know. If it does not seem to be either , Official, helpful, or fun then trash it.

There are enough good questions out there...stick with those.