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a cr from Gmat

by diebeatsthegmat » Sun Dec 25, 2011 11:18 am
The highway from Ipswich to Rodway is currently overcrowded with traffic, which deters potential customers from visiting Rodway's stores. The congestion has gotten so bad that many of the stores in Rodway are struggling to survive. Meanwhile, in Ipswich, the stores are thriving since they widened the road to Martin. Thus, to alleviate congestion and save Rodway's stores, the road between Ipswich and Rodway should be widened.

Which of the following, if true, casts the most doubt on the argument above?

The construction necessary to widen the road will block an additional lane of traffic, temporarily adding to the congestion.
The stores in Rodway are only profitable during the holiday shopping season.
Martin is a thriving metropolis whose residents have several times the purchasing power of those of Ipswich.
The owners of Rodway's stores are spending their revenue on advertising and marketing rather than on purchasing new merchandise.
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by user123321 » Sun Dec 25, 2011 11:23 am
[spoiler]is it A?[/spoiler]

fifth option seems missing. could you post that as well.

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by Neo Anderson » Sun Dec 25, 2011 9:14 pm
The premises: highway from Ipswich - Rodway is congested => Stores @ Rodway are in dire straits
Since higway from Ipswich - Martin was widened => stores at Ipswich are thriving

Conclusion : Widen the Ipswich - Rodway highway to save stores at Rodway.

=> The stores @ Rodway are not dependent on the local (Rodway) customers and suggested solution is 'widen the road so that Ipswich customers can access stores at Rodway.'

=> The stores at Ipswich are only thriving since the highway b/n ipswich and martin was widened => stores at Ipswich are dependent on the customers of Martin rather than on local (Ipswich) cutomers.
The construction necessary to widen the road will block an additional lane of traffic, temporarily adding to the congestion. This one casts doubt but only temporarily! still count this one
The stores in Rodway are only profitable during the holiday shopping season. Eliminate this because this does nothing to the conclusion
Martin is a thriving metropolis whose residents have several times the purchasing power of those of Ipswich. This is again a potential answer!
The owners of Rodway's stores are spending their revenue on advertising and marketing rather than on purchasing new merchandise.Eliminate as irrelevant!
Given the options (A to D and missing E) C appears to be the best choice!

as this weakens the conclusion, and suggests that the purchasing power of residents of Martin is higher and because the roads b/n Martin and Ipswich are wide, these customers from Martin shop at these Ipswich stores; however If the road b/n Ipswich and Rodway is widened, customers of Ipswich may still not shop at Rodway stores view less purchasing power.

Pls Do share the OA!
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by chufus » Mon Dec 26, 2011 12:40 am
We need a reason that points out that widening the roads will not help in this process. The only answer that fits the bill is C which says:

Martin is a thriving metropolis whose residents have several times the purchasing power of those of Ipswich.

This could potentially mean that it was not the widening of the roads that helped the sales but the fact that the people in Martin had more purchasing power, hence weakening the assumption that widening roads will help sales. It provides a second alternative and hence casts doubt on the original premise. What's the original Answer?
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by nileshdalvi » Thu Dec 29, 2011 5:27 am
None of the answer choices seem to Weaken the Argument.

Highway is overcrowded and is a hindrance for shoppers. So, stores are struggling to survive. --> Causal provided.

Stores in Ipswich thriving from the time they widened the road to Martin. ---> No causation mentioned here.

Conclusion: To reduce congestion and save stores, widen the roadway.

Assumption: Widening the roadway would reduce congestion and thus save stores (previous causal)similar to what happened with Ipswich stores.

To weaken, we need to either show that Rodway and Ipswich are different or widening the roadway was a correlation and not causation of congestion being reduced.

A. The construction necessary to widen the road will block an additional lane of traffic, temporarily adding to the congestion.
Argument discusses the result of widening and not what happens during widening. So, even if there is traffic increase during construction work, it does not undermine the chance that rodway stores would be in business after construction.

B. The stores in Rodway are only profitable during the holiday shopping season.
Does not undermine the chance that Rodway stores would be in business after widening.

C.Martin is a thriving metropolis whose residents have several times the purchasing power of those of Ipswich.
This too does not undermine. Comparison of purchasing power in Ipswich and Martin has no relation (from argument) with Rodway business. Also, it does not relate to the road widened between Ipswich and Martin because the same could have been the case before the widening. Not related.

D. The owners of Rodway's stores are spending their revenue on advertising and marketing rather than on purchasing new merchandise.
This is simply not related to the issue at hand. The problem is that probable customers are lost due to congestion and we need to prove that widening wont help.

IMO, none of the answer choices serve the purpose.

Is it a GMAT/LSAT Question i.e from either of the tests? If not I would blindly ignore this question.
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by mir.yahya » Thu Dec 29, 2011 10:40 am
None of the answer choices weaken the argument.

Please post complete question.
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by GMATGuruNY » Thu Dec 29, 2011 3:21 pm
diebeatsthegmat wrote:The highway from Ipswich to Rodway is currently overcrowded with traffic, which deters potential customers from visiting Rodway's stores. The congestion has gotten so bad that many of the stores in Rodway are struggling to survive. Meanwhile, in Ipswich, the stores are thriving since they widened the road to Martin. Thus, to alleviate congestion and save Rodway's stores, the road between Ipswich and Rodway should be widened.

Which of the following, if true, casts the most doubt on the argument above?

The construction necessary to widen the road will block an additional lane of traffic, temporarily adding to the congestion.
The stores in Rodway are only profitable during the holiday shopping season.
Martin is a thriving metropolis whose residents have several times the purchasing power of those of Ipswich.
The owners of Rodway's stores are spending their revenue on advertising and marketing rather than on purchasing new merchandise.
Martin's stores have only experienced a slight increase in profits since the road from Ipswich was widened.
I've added the missing answer choice.
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by diebeatsthegmat » Thu Jan 05, 2012 9:01 pm
GMATGuruNY wrote:
diebeatsthegmat wrote:The highway from Ipswich to Rodway is currently overcrowded with traffic, which deters potential customers from visiting Rodway's stores. The congestion has gotten so bad that many of the stores in Rodway are struggling to survive. Meanwhile, in Ipswich, the stores are thriving since they widened the road to Martin. Thus, to alleviate congestion and save Rodway's stores, the road between Ipswich and Rodway should be widened.

Which of the following, if true, casts the most doubt on the argument above?

The construction necessary to widen the road will block an additional lane of traffic, temporarily adding to the congestion.
The stores in Rodway are only profitable during the holiday shopping season.
Martin is a thriving metropolis whose residents have several times the purchasing power of those of Ipswich.
The owners of Rodway's stores are spending their revenue on advertising and marketing rather than on purchasing new merchandise.
Martin's stores have only experienced a slight increase in profits since the road from Ipswich was widened.
I've added the missing answer choice.
i think the answer is A and i chose it but the answer is not A and i do not understand why. can you please tell me why?
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by myst_ari » Thu Jan 05, 2012 10:05 pm
If widening ipswich to Martin did not increase store sales in Martin, no reason to believe it would for Rodaway if the road b/n ipswich and Rodaway is widened.

*E*
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by ArunangsuSahu » Fri Jan 06, 2012 2:37 pm
If option (E) is available then it is option (E)

(A)--Temporarily term eliminates the Choice
(B)--Doesn't mention the traffic congestion level during holiday season so apple to apple comparison is not possible if we assume less traffic then it strengthens if we think about the same traffic level as the other busy days then this weakens the conclusion because "Some reason other than congestion is the case of sales-profit decline"
(C)--Not comparing Apple to Apple...No mention about Roadway--so IRRELEVANT
(D)--Advertising is also a part of business..Not a necessary cause for the sales decline
(E)Actually this tells that even after road widening Martin's stores got slight increase so road widening actually may not support the thriving of business. Some other factors are necessarily there"
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by happymanocha » Fri Jan 06, 2012 8:00 pm
If option E is unavailable, then i will go for option A.
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by dellaboemia » Sat Jun 02, 2012 2:27 pm
the purpose of widening the road was to "alleviate congestion and save Rodway's stores". One could argue that a slight increase amongst Martin's stores would support the argument that such a road widening might save Rodway's stores.

Comment anyone?
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by jimmyjimmy » Sun Jun 03, 2012 8:06 am
after 5th option still D is fine,.,.

coz after widening there was sligh increase in sales , so if road is widened to rodway , there will be sligh increase in sales , hence no difficulty to thrive for rodway stores......

so D seems fine..
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by umeshpatil » Sun Jun 03, 2012 8:08 pm
[Martin]<==<===<==<===Ipswich-->-->--->-->-->--[ Rodway shops]

Premise:
Road towards Rodway is overcrowded and blocking the customers to reach the Rodway shops. Rodway stores are struggling to survive.
Ipswitch stores are profitable as they have widened road from Martin.

Conclusion: To alleviate the congestion and Save Rodway's store, path between them should be widened.

1. We are considering to save the Rodway after the road gets widened and NOT during the construction. This option is out.
2. Even during holidays also road gets congested and customers are unable to reach. This option is out.
3. People from Martin reach the Ipswitch because of their purchasing power. It means Ipswitch people don't reach Rodways store becauause of inability to purchase. It is out of context. So, This option is out.
4. This options says, Because of lack of merchandising, customers are low.It doesn't talk about congestion.
5. Even after the widening of road of Martin, sales have not improved much. So, It is not useful in case of Rodway's store. This create most doubtful situation to plan to succeed. So, This is the answer.
Last edited by umeshpatil on Sat Jun 09, 2012 6:55 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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by ramprakaashk » Sun Jun 03, 2012 10:00 pm
IMO : D, because it gives an alternate reason for loss even after widening the road.The reason is that the shop-keepers doesn't update their merchandise.
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