Christopher Columbus Analogy

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Christopher Columbus Analogy

by sidb81 » Mon Nov 17, 2008 5:34 am
From time to time, the press indulges in outbursts of indignation over the use of false or misleading information by the U.S. government in support of its policies and programs. No one endorses needless deception. But consider this historical analogy. It is known that Christopher Columbus, on his first voyage to the New World, deliberately falsified the log to show a shorter sailing distance for each day out than the ships had actually traveled. In this way, Columbus was able to convince his skeptical sailors that they had not sailed past the point at which they expected to find the shores of India. Without this deception, Columbus’s sailors might well have mutinied, and the New World might never have been discovered.

Which of the following is the main weakness of the historical analogy drawn in the passage above?
(A) The sailors in Columbus’s crew never knew that they had been deceived, while government deception is generally uncovered by the press.
(B) A ship’s log is a record intended mainly for use by the captain, while press reports are generally disseminated for use by the public at large.
(C) The members of a ship’s crew are selected by the captain of the ship, while those who work in the press are self-selected.
(D) The crew of a ship is responsible for the success of a voyage, while the press is not responsible for the use others make of the factual information it publishes.
(E) In a democracy, the people are expected to participate in the nation’s political decision making, while the members of a ship’s crew are expected simply to obey the orders of the captain.

I chose A as that is the closest I could get to a weakness.

OA is E - It looks to be out of scope. Can someone explain why it is E?

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by schumi_gmat » Mon Nov 17, 2008 10:01 am
Let me try to explain.

I was between A and E

In arg, the sentence "No one endorses needless deception", means that columbus used a deception as a need and he could do because sailors jus obey the orders and are not decision makers

Whereas, Govt deception is needless because in democracy, people participate in decision making.

hence the 2 incidents are not analogous.

hence E

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by raunekk » Mon Nov 17, 2008 10:23 am
firstly, an amazing question...

i would definately like to know the source..

Its tough to choose between A and E...

P1:From time to time, the press indulges in outbursts of indignation over the use of false or misleading information by the U.S. government in support of its policies and programs

conclusion1:No one endorses needless deception

P2:But consider this historical analogy. It is known that Christopher Columbus, on his first voyage to the New World, deliberately falsified the log to show a shorter sailing distance for each day out than the ships had actually traveled. In this way, Columbus was able to convince his skeptical sailors that they had not sailed past the point at which they expected to find the shores of India

conclusion2:Without this deception, Columbus’s sailors might well have mutinied, and the New World might never have been discovered

I feel a common question connecting the two premises and conclusion is

"to what extent deception is possible??""

In 1st deception is not possible because of the press and democracy..
( A and E seems close)

2nd , deception is possible...

i m not confident yet... may b i m missing a more deeper logic between d analogies...

Anyone wants to take it from here???

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by raunekk » Mon Nov 17, 2008 10:31 am
Whereas, Govt deception is needless because in democracy, people participate in decision making.
i would have agreed on this but the stimulus says
its the press that informs people about the government..
thus its not people who are participating,,,

E can be corect if we think..

In democracy people are allowed to question the government.

But the sailors didnt have this priviledge.

So the question can be..

"To what extent deception is possible??"

I might be wrong.

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E is the answer

by sanjaysmart » Mon Nov 17, 2008 9:34 pm
The stimulus constructs an analogy between (a) actions of present day governments and (b) Christopher Columbus' actions

An analogy depends of compatibility and comparability between 2 elements.

An answer choice showing incompatibility between the two elements weakens the analogical stimulus.
E does exactly this.
Sanjay

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by ptm_30 » Wed Sep 22, 2010 9:47 pm
Hi,

I was just wondering that in option E, a new term "Democracy" is introduced which is nowhere mentioned in the passage. From our GK we do know that US has a democracy but are we supposed to assume that US has a democracy in this qn?

Due to this particular reaso, I ended up marking A as the answer.

Please guide.

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by sanp_l » Wed Sep 22, 2010 10:15 pm
Hi,

My approach lead me to E which is as below:

The analogy is between Columbus falsifying the log deliberately to curb a sailor's mutiny and discover the main world and misleading information by the U.S. government in support of its policies and programs.

Both aren't the same as the former involves sailor's at Columbus command and he has all the reins in his hands and the latter is a democratic government where the people surely do want to know and get involved in the policies being made. Option E identifies this.

As of Option A, the information "the press indulges in outbursts of indignation over the use of" is no where in the analogy made. The analogy isn't between the sailor's and the press. The analogy is between the falsification of logs by Columbus and the misleading information by the U.S. government .

Hope this helps.
Sandy

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by vishalj » Wed Sep 22, 2010 11:42 pm
A good analogy question.

As you know, a strong analogy question is intact and follow the same footprints. Let's look in this question.

1. People/press --> Sailors
2. US Govt --> Columbus
3. Misleading --> Deception
4. Policies/Program--> Discovery

Hence, a partten is formed in an anology. To weaken, we just need to make sure that 1) the choice should be within the scope 2) the analogy are not intact or it is not representative.

E is weakening the argument by making people vs sailors uncomparable. There are other ways to weaken the argument. For ex, the policies and program are necessary for the existence of system where as the discovery was a mere drive to prove excellence,etc.

The choice A is really going outside the scope of the argument. Another example of this nature could be - the King and queen ordered Columbus for the mission where as the US GOvt conceived and ordered the policies and program.

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by g000fy » Thu Sep 23, 2010 7:15 am
Lol. I dismissed E thinking US is not a democracy! ROFLMAO :mrgreen:

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by ptm_30 » Thu Sep 23, 2010 11:32 am
Sandy and Vihal j,
There is no doubt that E is the best answer
But are we supposed to assume things not mentioned in the argument?

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by sanp_l » Thu Sep 23, 2010 12:44 pm
@ptm_30: I feel there is a difference between "outside information" and a fact of common knowledge. That in a democracy the people are expected to participate in the nation's political decision making is already stated. That US has a democracy is of common knowledge. "Democracy" doesn't fit into an "outside information" category here.
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by lokesh r » Thu Sep 23, 2010 1:38 pm
I still can't believe answer option is E.

i strongly feel answer is A.

According to E..one has to deduce that US is demoratic country. But am i not violiatng GMAT rule in assuming US as democratic country?