Critical Reasoning

debmalya_dutta wrote:Hi kvcpk (pardon the acronym usage coz I do not know your name)

D) The atmospheric jet stream moving across North America is diverted, by the Rocky Mountains, far to the south, bringing arctic Canadian air to the northeastern United States

Leaving aside the geography bit of the option , the way I interpreted the option was
"arctic Canadian air " - air that must be cold because it is from the "arctic" area ... and that helped me in selecting option D.
I see your point though ... yah....

Yeah Debmalya,

I agree with you. D was the best among the lot.

David@VeritasPrep wrote:The Northeast region of the United States has a climate that is unique at the latitude. For example, Burlington, Vermont is at 44 degrees north latitude, the same latitude as Southern France. Southern France has a typical mid-temperate zone climate characterized by warm, dry summers and cool winters with only occasional snowfall. Yet Burlington's climate is similar to that of Anchorage, Alaska and Helsinki, Finland, each or which are located about 1000 miles further north.

Which of the following, if true, best helps to resolve the apparent discrepancy discussed above?

A) The warm waters of the Mediterranean Ocean influence the weather of Southern France, especially the French Riviera.

B) The circulation of air around low pressure centers generally brings cold northern air to the western side of the low pressure.

C) Altitude influences climate as much as does latitude and Burlington, Anchorage, and Helsinki are all less than 200 feet above sea level.

D) The atmospheric jet stream moving across North America is diverted, by the Rocky Mountains, far to the south, bringing arctic Canadian air to the northeastern United States.

E) The Western region of the contiguous United States has a stable climate dominated by the cold waters of the Pacific Ocean.

oh my god! this argument is so difficult to understand. i am not very comfortable today to understand all these words. finally the answer i chose is also the OA but its tough or my mood is not very well today...hmhmhmhm

David@VeritasPrep wrote:Helsinki, Finland was mentioned in order to give an example of a city that is 1000 miles north in latitude from Burlington, yet has the same climate. Helsinki is not unique - it has the appropriate climate for the latitude - and so does not need to be explained. It is like the person with five fingers - not unique - used to show that the person with six fingers is unique.

Hope that helps!

That explains all, David !!! thanks.

Thanks to the comments, I edited the original question at the beginning of this post. I added the word "cold" before arctic Canadian air and I added the words "year round" to the end of the choice. I hope that makes it less geography dependent. Let me know what you think!

David@VeritasPrep wrote:Helsinki, Finland was mentioned in order to give an example of a city that is 1000 miles north in latitude from Burlington, yet has the same climate. Helsinki is not unique - it has the appropriate climate for the latitude - and so does not need to be explained. It is like the person with five fingers - not unique - used to show that the person with six fingers is unique.

Hope that helps!

Hi David I chose D.
I eliminated C on the grounds that since altitude determines the climate as well, C would have been a good option if it would say that the 3 cities burlington,Alaska and Helsinkin were 200 Miles above sea level provided 200 miles is a height big enough to influence climate.Since the emphasis is on 200 Miles below sealevel , it doesnt add much to resolve the paradox.Can u elaborate on why u eliminated C .
I found D a much better option so didnt think much over C.

The way to eliminate C is that we are seeking to explain how these cities, two of them 1000 miles north of Burlington could all have the same climate. We are going to need something strange about Burlington, Vermont, something unique. Answer choice C actually makes this more difficult to understand because it takes away one possible explanation, that Burlington is at a high altitude like say, Nepal. So C would not help to explain as we are still left with the fact of the same climate despite 1000 miles difference in latitude and now we do not have the most likely explanation, latitude.

Does that help?


By the way --- my question here is no longer factually accurate. The truth is that over the last 30 years and especially the last 10, with the warming of the globe, the weather in Vermont (and southern Quebec as well) is become more what it should be for this latitude. It is still not as warm as, say central France which is at the same latitude, but it is much warmer than it used to be. It used to get to -40 degrees Fahrenheit and Celsius (at -40 they are the same temp). Now in the last 10 years it has not gotten below zero very often and hardly ever below - 10 Fahrenheit (around - 20 Celsius). I am going to plant some fruit trees next Spring that would never have survived the cold 20 years ago.

Hi, David, I still could not understand how to eliminate choice c. We need new information to explain why Burlington Vermont is at the same latitude as the south of France, but have a different climate, which is unique. Choice C says Burlington is less than 200 feet above sea level, which provides the reason why Burlington and Helsinki have the same climate but are different from that of the same latitude as other areas. Please correct me.

Okay, take a step back. I mention the south of France just as an aside. The question does not mention it.

Here is the paradox:

1) Burlington Vermont, USA is located about 1000 miles further south compared to Anchorage, Alaska, USA and Helsinki Finland.

however

2) Burlington Vermont, USA has the same climate as Anchorage, Alaska, USA and Helsinki Finland.

Now the first thing is a simple fact. How could we need to explain why these cities are located where they are? They simply are. But the second fact does need to be explained. Given the respective locations, how can Burlington, VT, USA have the same climate as the other two cities, which are located so much further north.This is what needs to be explained.

The focus is not on the other two cities Helsinki and Anchorage because these are cited as examples of what is proper at that latitude. The focus is on the climate of Burlington. It is like this: If I said that the 10-year-old child could do math as well as two average college students I would not need to explain why the college students were not better - they are average - it is the skill of the 10-year-old that needs to be explained.

Now it is possible, as I mentioned before, that we would find out that Burlington, Vermont, USA is at a much higher altitude and of course altitude affects climate so this might explain it. The climate of Tibet is much different from that of other areas at the same latitude that are not located at such a great elevation.

In the same way we might find out that our hypothetical 10-year-old math prodigy has a very high IQ. But what if an answer choice said that his IQ was no higher than that of the college students (who are average). This does not explain the paradox but makes it more puzzling. How is this kid so good at math if he is not considered to be really intelligent?

In the same way, answer choice C does the opposite of what we want. It does not tell us that Burlington, VT, USA is at a great elevation thereby explaining why it is colder than we would anticipate. Rather it tells us that Burlington is at an altitude of less than 200 feet, the same as the other two cities. So rather than explain the paradox, Choice C takes away perhaps the best way to have explained it. Just like saying our 10-year-old math genius is not super smart.

Choice D is the correct choice because it focuses on what makes that part of the United States different and therefore explains why it should be colder there (actually here since it is were I am) than anticipated. To finish our analogy this is where we would learn that our 10-year-old has been studying math everyday to the exclusion of all other studies and this is why he is so advanced. Do you see? The answer choice provides a difference that shows why one thing is special.

My Pick is D, though i was lil confused with B

David@VeritasPrep wrote:The way to eliminate C is that we are seeking to explain how these cities, two of them 1000 miles north of Burlington could all have the same climate. We are going to need something strange about Burlington, Vermont, something unique. Answer choice C actually makes this more difficult to understand because it takes away one possible explanation, that Burlington is at a high altitude like say, Nepal. So C would not help to explain as we are still left with the fact of the same climate despite 1000 miles difference in latitude and now we do not have the most likely explanation, latitude.

Does that help?.

I didnt view the question from this perspective.Ya this convinces abt C to some extent.
However,I was stuck on C because it gave a reason that all the 3 places Burlington,Alaska and Finland are less than 200 miles above sea level.Since all the 3 places are less than 200 miles abovethe same level;,it gave me a reason to place the 3 in the same category.I know its absurd that just because some place is less than 200 miles above sea level,it should experience a cold climate.The place could be 50 miles above sealevel or 150 miles above sea level.

C) Altitude influences climate as much as does latitude and Burlington, Anchorage, and Helsinki are all less than 200 feet above sea level.


Can we eliminate (C) because nothing is mentioned above the altitudes of places in Southern France ? Say for instance if the altitudes of places in Southern France are also less than 200 feet above sea level , then this would'nt resolve the paradox . Is this kind of reasoning correct ?

As I said above, the best way to eliminate answer choice C is because it does not give us a reason why Burlington should be unique. That is what we are saying, that Burlington is the odd one. It has the latitude of France and the climate of Finland. You need something that is true of Burlington but not true of the other places. That is the best way to eliminate choice C.

It is true that a mention of the elevation of southern France might help us to see that Burlington is unique, but it is not required. A mention of the elevation of Finland being different from Burlington might be enough as well.

David