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Broader choice in planning

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by g000fy » Thu Oct 07, 2010 7:19 am
The current proposal to give college students a broader choice in planning their own courses of study should be abandoned. The students who are supporting the proposal will never be satisfied, no matter what requirements are established. Some of these students have reached their third year without declaring a major. One first-year student has failed to complete four required courses. Several others have indicated a serious indifference to grades and intellectual achievement.

A flaw in the argument is that it does which one of the following?
(A) avoids the issue by focusing on supporters of the proposal
(B) argues circularly by assuming the conclusion is true in stating the premises.
(C) fails to define the critical term "satisfied"
(D) distorts the proposal advocated by opponents
(E) users the term "student" equivocally

Source - Aristotle CR

OA - A
Last edited by g000fy on Thu Oct 07, 2010 8:50 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Source: — Critical Reasoning |

by shovan85 » Thu Oct 07, 2010 7:37 am
g000fy wrote:The current proposal to give college students a broader choice in planning their own courses of study should be abandoned. The students who are supporting the proposal will never be satisfied, no matter what requirements are established. Some of these students have reached their third year without declaring a major. One first-year student has failed to complete four required courses. Several others have indicated a serious indifference to grades and intellectual achievement.

A flaw in the argument is that it does which one of the following?
(A) avoids the issue by focusing on supporters of the proposal
(B) argues circularly by assuming the conclusion is true in stating the premises.
(C) fails to define the critical term "satisfied"
(D) distorts the proposal advocated by opponents
(E) users the term "student" equivocally

Source - Aristotle CR
I felt it really tough. After sticking to C my brain does not allow to accept any other options because I can understand only that one ;)

Is it C?
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by g000fy » Thu Oct 07, 2010 7:39 am
shovan85 wrote:
g000fy wrote:The current proposal to give college students a broader choice in planning their own courses of study should be abandoned. The students who are supporting the proposal will never be satisfied, no matter what requirements are established. Some of these students have reached their third year without declaring a major. One first-year student has failed to complete four required courses. Several others have indicated a serious indifference to grades and intellectual achievement.

A flaw in the argument is that it does which one of the following?
(A) avoids the issue by focusing on supporters of the proposal
(B) argues circularly by assuming the conclusion is true in stating the premises.
(C) fails to define the critical term "satisfied"
(D) distorts the proposal advocated by opponents
(E) users the term "student" equivocally

Source - Aristotle CR
I felt it really tough. After sticking to C my brain does not allow to accept any other options because I can understand only that one ;)

Is it C?
[spoiler]
No![/spoiler] :P
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by shovan85 » Thu Oct 07, 2010 7:52 am
g000fy wrote: A flaw in the argument is that it does which one of the following?

I felt it really tough. After sticking to C my brain does not allow to accept any other options because I can understand only that one ;)

[spoiler]
No![/spoiler] :P
Hey!! I got emotionally driven by the plan as I liked the plan to choose my own courses.... :)

(A) avoids the issue by focusing on supporters of the proposal
(B) If you see Conclusion is actually True by the premises
(C) "satisfied.." They will not be as students are not doing good
(D) "opponents" They are not in the picture
(E) "equivocally" means both way right!! +ve and -ve both effects should have been mentioned

Second attempt My take A. If this is not the answer then I am rescheduling my Date ;)
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by g000fy » Thu Oct 07, 2010 7:57 am
shovan85 wrote:
g000fy wrote: A flaw in the argument is that it does which one of the following?

I felt it really tough. After sticking to C my brain does not allow to accept any other options because I can understand only that one ;)

[spoiler]
No![/spoiler] :P
Hey!! I got emotionally driven by the plan as I liked the plan to choose my own courses.... :)

(A) avoids the issue by focusing on supporters of the proposal
(B) If you see Conclusion is actually True by the premises
(C) "satisfied.." They will not be as students are not doing good
(D) "opponents" They are not in the picture
(E) "equivocally" means both way right!! +ve and -ve both effects should have been mentioned

Second attempt My take A. If this is not the answer then I am rescheduling my Date ;)
Lol. GMAT gives you only one chance to answer my friend. :P
You're right in second attempt :)
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by Yanat » Thu Oct 07, 2010 10:05 am
I feel it is A.

It indeed avoids the issue by focusing on supporters of the proposal.
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by diebeatsthegmat » Thu Oct 07, 2010 5:38 pm
g000fy wrote:The current proposal to give college students a broader choice in planning their own courses of study should be abandoned. The students who are supporting the proposal will never be satisfied, no matter what requirements are established. Some of these students have reached their third year without declaring a major. One first-year student has failed to complete four required courses. Several others have indicated a serious indifference to grades and intellectual achievement.

A flaw in the argument is that it does which one of the following?
(A) avoids the issue by focusing on supporters of the proposal
(B) argues circularly by assuming the conclusion is true in stating the premises.
(C) fails to define the critical term "satisfied"
(D) distorts the proposal advocated by opponents
(E) users the term "student" equivocally

Source - Aristotle CR

OA - A
i am so dumb these days but fortunately i answered this correct in a min
the CR says.... we should abandon the proposal to give students a broader choice in planning their own course of study....
explained : because students who are supporting it will never sastisfied... and give out evidences such as some does this some feels that and blah balh balh

for the 2 frist sentence there is nothing relevant about whether we should abandone and why and why the students supporting it dont feel satisfied.... and who cares if they dont???
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by Testluv » Thu Oct 07, 2010 10:30 pm
Can you guys tell that we could have inserted the keyword phrase "For example" right at the beginning of the third sentence? Then, it would look like this:
The current proposal to give college students a broader choice in planning their own courses of study should be abandoned. The students who are supporting the proposal will never be satisfied, no matter what requirements are established. For example, some of these students have reached their third year without declaring a major. One first-year student has failed to complete four required courses....
Thus, the author is exemplifying/illustrating to us what he means by "never be satisfied." Because the author successfully conveyed to us what he meant by "never be satisfied," his failure to explicitly define "satisfied" is not the reason why his argument is flawed.

In fact, this argument presents us with a classic flaw (well, classic on the LSAT anyways--not sure if I've ever seen it on the GMAT--this must be an LSAT or LSAT-like question): an ad hominem attack. Or "arguing towards the person rather than the issue." Whether the proposal should be accepted or abandoned should depend on the merits and demerits of the proposal and not on how some supporters of the proposal are behaving. Choice A is correct.
Kaplan Teacher in Toronto
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by g000fy » Fri Oct 08, 2010 4:04 am
Testluv, the question is indeed from LSAT set. Wonderful explanation yet again. Thanks
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