Tough one

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Tough one

by crak.gmat » Sat Sep 13, 2008 3:25 pm
Almost every modern kitchen today is equipped with a microwave oven, mainly because microwave ovens offer a fast and convenient way of cooking and reheating food. Indeed, it has become a standard appliance in most households. Studies have shown, however, that microwave ovens are not completely safe and their use has occasionally resulted in serious injury. Because of this, some consumer advocates argue that microwave ovens should not be so readily accepted as a standard appliance until they can be certified to be completely safe.

Which of the following, if true, would most strengthen the argument of the consumer advocates?
A. Microwave ovens have taken much of the joy out of cooking.
B. There have been many reported incidences of people who have been scalded by liquids superheated in microwave ovens.
C. Absolute safety is the only criterion by which an appliance should be judged to be acceptable as “standard.”
D. There is no such thing as a completely safe appliance.
E. Stoves and ovens that use natural gas consume energy much more efficiently than microwave ovens.


OA C

Explanations please...thanks!
Source: — Critical Reasoning |

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by niraj_a » Sat Sep 13, 2008 3:30 pm
i chose C, after deciding between C and B, because C attacks the assumption of the argument directly. nowhere else in the stimulus do they mention "standard equipment".

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by emrahercan » Sat Sep 13, 2008 11:31 pm
What makes this question tough ?
Because of this(microwave ovens are not completely safe and their use has occasionally resulted in serious injury.), some consumer advocates argue that microwave ovens should not be so readily accepted as a standard appliance until they can be certified to be completely safe.

C reconfirms the assumption and make the conclusion more solid.

That's it!
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by crak.gmat » Sun Sep 14, 2008 11:17 am
Thanks for your responses... What made the question tough for me was the use of 'only' in answer choice C which made it too extreme for me, and so I eliminated it.

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by NSNguyen » Mon Sep 22, 2008 6:47 am
IMO: B
B contributes premise for the argument.
Please share your idea and your reasoning :D
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by banker1 » Mon Sep 22, 2008 12:23 pm
I too originally went with (B). After further review (and knowing the OA) I can see why (B) is wrong.

(B) talks about individuals being scalded by superheated liquids, what about other things you heat up in a microwave? I think this makes (B) too narrow and out of scope.

(A), (D), and (E) were all easliy eliminated. (C)'s wording seemed too extreme to me originally but I know see it's the only suitable answer. Any idea how to prevent this from happening on test day??

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by k_abhi19 » Tue Sep 23, 2008 1:33 pm
crak.gmat wrote:Thanks for your responses... What made the question tough for me was the use of 'only' in answer choice C which made it too extreme for me, and so I eliminated it.

You should not have bothered about that extremity (as the question is not asking for a conclusion) of the option as the word 'only' actually makes C the answer .. by telling us that anything other than absolute safety is irrelevant to the definition of a 'standard' product... and hence strengthens the conclusion made in the argument... HTH :)

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by nervesofsteel » Wed Sep 24, 2008 12:18 am
Standard is something which is absolutely safe...

The same is concurred in C

Thus C is the answer..

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by peter.p.81 » Wed May 11, 2016 3:01 am
I am leaning more towards C, but I'm not sure about it.