Critical Reasoning

1.
Something must be done to ease traffic congestion. In traditional small towns, people used to work and shop in the same town in which they lived, but now that stores and workplaces are located far away from residential areas, people cannot avoid travelling long distances each day. Traffic congestion is so heavy on all roads that, even on major highways, the maximum speed averages only 35 miles per hour.
Which one of the following proposals is most supported by the statements above?
(A) The maximum speed limit on major highways should be increased.
(B) People who now travel on major highways should be encouraged to travel on secondary roads instead.
(C) Residents of the remaining traditional small towns should be encouraged to move to the suburbs.
(D) Drivers who travel well below the maximum speed limit on major highways should be fined.
(E) New businesses should be encouraged to locate closer to where their workers would live.

2.

Prominent business executives often play active roles in United States presidential campaigns as fundraisers or backroom strategists but few actually seek to become president themselves. Throughout history the great majority of those who have sought to become president have been lawyers, military leaders, or full-time politicians. This is understandable, for the personality and skills that make for success in business do not make for success in politics. Business is largely hierarchical, whereas politics is coordinative; as a result, business executives tend to be uncomfortable with compromises and power sharing, which are inherent in politics.
Which one of the following, if true, most seriously weakens the proposed explanation of why business executives do not run for president?
(A) Many of the most active presidential fundraisers and backroom strategists are themselves politicians.
(B) Military leaders are generally no more comfortable with compromises and power sharing than are business executives.
(C) Some of the skills needed to become a successful lawyer are different from some of those needed to become a successful military leader.
(D) Some former presidents have engaged in business ventures after leaving office
(E) Some hierarchically structured companies have been major financial supporters of candidates for president.

OA after some discussions

Answer for 1 looks like C to me.

(A) The maximum speed limit on major highways should be increased.
The passage does not talk about speed limits at all!

(B) People who now travel on major highways should be encouraged to travel on secondary roads instead.
"Traffic congestion is so heavy on all roads that" it suggests that the highways are busy because secondary roads are already busy.
(C) Residents of the remaining traditional small towns should be encouraged to move to the suburbs.
This sounds favorable.
(D) Drivers who travel well below the maximum speed limit on major highways should be fined.
Not at all!
(E) New businesses should be encouraged to locate closer to where their workers would live.
Sounds favorable, but if businesses locate closer, does it mean that shops also will move closer?

I am torn between C and E but I go with C finally.

rahul_tgsp wrote:1. Something must be done to ease traffic congestion. In traditional small towns, people used to work and shop in the same town in which they lived, but now that stores and workplaces are located far away from residential areas, people cannot avoid travelling long distances each day. Traffic congestion is so heavy on all roads that, even on major highways, the maximum speed averages only 35 miles per hour.
Which one of the following proposals is most supported by the statements above?
(A) The maximum speed limit on major highways should be increased.
(B) People who now travel on major highways should be encouraged to travel on secondary roads instead.
(C) Residents of the remaining traditional small towns should be encouraged to move to the suburbs.
(D) Drivers who travel well below the maximum speed limit on major highways should be fined.
(E) New businesses should be encouraged to locate closer to where their workers would live.

IMO E

I guess C cannot be the answer as remaining traditional small towns should be encouraged to move in the passage no where it is mentioned that ANY of the small towns have moved. If none of them have moved, then how can we talk about the Remaining to move?

agree with shovan,,answer is indeed E

for second question only A and D come close.


i will kick out A because it does not consider business men ....so IMO D by POE..

pardon me if m wrong, m a bit rusted guys,

C is a bait and out of scope. No where in the stimulus does it suggest that traffic congestion is between small town to businesses or suburb to businesses, and that itself is a sure sign that C is out of scope.

E appears to be the only one within scope.

IMO

1.E
2.D editing it to option B .

Coz D states prez becoming business men but not sure abt the vice versa ... confusion phewww.... !!!!

OA plz ...

1. E
2. I will go with B here.
D says politicains have engaed in business,thts okay. argument says X cannot be Y. but maybe Y can be X?

i would go wth E for 1 but can someone explain to me option D.
argument talks abt somethgn needs to be done to ease the congestions. it also says in one of the premises "people cannot AVOID travelling". so if someone is travlling well below the avg speed limit shud be fined, as there are adding up the already congested roads. The counter argumnet may well be tht the speed is slow because the road is already congested. so we can ignore this option?
or am i thinking too much. on test i wud have picked E and moved on, but just a thought

PS:and as i write this, sachin's dream run comes to an end

D is out of scope. D is suggesting that max speed can be controlled by the driver, and that is not the case because we know the subject of the stimulus is about traffic congestion.

Question 1:

1. People must travel long distances because they live far away from work and stores
2. Something must be done to stop the traffic this causes

A. Incorrect. Increasing the speed doesnt help because congestion is a natural speed limit
B. Incorrect. All roads are a problem not just major highways
C. Incorrect. This doesnt fix the problem of living near work and stores
D. Incorrect. If congestion causes the slow traffic then it does no good to fine slow drivers. You have to ease congestion to fix the traffic problem.
E. Correct. This is the one thing that would ease congestion as it would cut out the work traffic on the roads.

Question 2:

1. Business execs do not look to become president because they are not comfortable with compromise
2. Lawyers, military leaders, and politicians are the usual presidential candidates

A. Incorrect. This information does nothing to tell us about the motives of running for president
B. Correct. If military leaders arent comfortable with compromise but still run then there must be some other factor that chases business execs away.
C. Incorrect. Like choice A this does nothing to tell us about the motives of running for president.
D. Incorrect. Its being in business prior to running for president that is a problem, not what happens after the person wins.
E. Incorrect. Irrelevant. This basically tells us the same as is in the original passage

OA
1.E (remember this is an inference question so the ans has to capture major elements of the stimulus)
2.B (if military leaders have some qualities in common with business executives and can hold office....y cant business executives do it)

congrats fitz...the explanations were quite precise

fitz is never wrong

we always are

fitzgerald23 wrote:Question 1:

Question 2:

1. Business execs do not look to become president because they are not comfortable with compromise
2. Lawyers, military leaders, and politicians are the usual presidential candidates

A. Incorrect. This information does nothing to tell us about the motives of running for president
B. Correct. If military leaders arent comfortable with compromise but still run then there must be some other factor that chases business execs away.
C. Incorrect. Like choice A this does nothing to tell us about the motives of running for president.
D. Incorrect. Its being in business prior to running for president that is a problem, not what happens after the person wins.
E. Incorrect. Irrelevant. This basically tells us the same as is in the original passage

Hi fitz, why are u considering motives in order to eliminate A .
Argument says that back room strategists dont bother to run for president
From this , the argument concludes that businesspeople are no good at running for politics.
The scope shifts from 'running for prez" to " participation in Politics ".
Choice A refutes the conclusion that Businessppl cant participate in politics by saying that backroom strategists are politicians too.
Fitz what your method of solving this Weakeing CR
U found the Conclusion , found the assumption and then looked up the choices .
If yes , then what was the conclusion that you drew from this CR

mundasingh123 wrote: Hi fitz, why are u considering motives in order to eliminate A .
Argument says that back room strategists dont bother to run for president
From this , the argument concludes that businesspeople are no good at running for politics.
The scope shifts from 'running for prez" to " participation in Politics ".
Choice A refutes the conclusion that Businessppl cant participate in politics by saying that backroom strategists are politicians too.
Fitz what your method of solving this Weakeing CR
U found the Conclusion , found the assumption and then looked up the choices .
If yes , then what was the conclusion that you drew from this CR

I think you are missing a key word, because the argument is all about businesspeople. Lets go through this one line by line and Ill explain my reasoning:

Prominent business executives often play active roles in United States presidential campaigns as fundraisers or backroom strategists but few actually seek to become president themselves.

This is going to be the premise of the passage. The author is pointing out a strange event of sorts in that business execs take part in presidential campaigns but dont run for office. He is going to try to explain why this is so.

Throughout history the great majority of those who have sought to become president have been lawyers, military leaders, or full-time politicians.

Here the author is simply telling us the people who do run for office.

This is understandable, for the personality and skills that make for success in business do not make for success in politics.

The author is now beginning to make his argument. In this line he is separating business people from the other types who run for president. The author insinuates that business people have different skills and personalities than lawyers, military leaders, etc...


Business is largely hierarchical, whereas politics is coordinative; as a result, business executives tend to be uncomfortable with compromises and power sharing, which are inherent in politics.

Here is is final clarification of those skills and personality traits he talks about above. Executives are uncomfortable with compromise and sharing power and that is a must in politics, those those skills must be held by those who run for office.

You should be able to get ideas for answers before even looking at the choices. In this case there are two ways that stand out to invalidate the explanation

1. Completely flip it around. Find an answer choice that states most businesses have not followed a hierarchical strategy for years, instead using groups to make decisions

2. Invalidate the comparison. Lawyers, politicians, or military people are not ok with compromise.

Run down to the answer choices and you will see that B fills one of those 2 options. It invalidates the comparison by saying military people dont like compromise. If they run for president but dont like compromise then there is no reason for business people to not run for president as well. There must be something else that the author is missing that keeps the business execs from running.
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