Critical Reasoning

In the course of her researches, a historian recently found two documents mentioning the same person, Erich Schnitzler. One, dated May 3, 1739, is a record of Schnitzler's arrest for peddling without a license. The second, undated, is a statement by Schnitzler asserting that he has been peddling off and on for 20 years.

The facts above best support which of the following conclusions?



A Schnitzler started peddling around 1719.
B Schnitzler was arrested repeatedly for peddling.
C The undated document was written before 1765.
D The arrest record was written after the undated document.
E The arrest record provides better evidence that Schnitzler peddled than does the undated document.

A -Out of Scope
B -Out of Scope
C Maybe yes maybe No, But not Definitive
D- Maybe Yes
E-Out of Scope

Ans is C but why cannot it be D.
Thanks
Khurram

khurram wrote:In the course of her researches, a historian recently found two documents mentioning the same person, Erich Schnitzler. One, dated May 3, 1739, is a record of Schnitzler's arrest for peddling without a license. The second, undated, is a statement by Schnitzler asserting that he has been peddling off and on for 20 years.

The facts above best support which of the following conclusions?



A Schnitzler started peddling around 1719.
B Schnitzler was arrested repeatedly for peddling.
C The undated document was written before 1765.
D The arrest record was written after the undated document.
E The arrest record provides better evidence that Schnitzler peddled than does the undated document.

A -Out of Scope
B -Out of Scope
C Maybe yes maybe No, But not Definitive
D- Maybe Yes
E-Out of Scope

Ans is C but why cannot it be D.
Thanks
Khurram

Any question which asks us to draw a conclusion is an Inference question. The correct answer to an inference question is something that MUST be true based on what's stated or implied by one or more pieces of information provided.

Based on the facts provided (the one thing that I don't like about this question is that we're never actually told that the assertions in the stimulus are true; on the GMAT, almost certainly the question would have read "The facts above, if true, best support which of the following conclusions?"), we know that:

(1) he was arrested for peddling without a license in 1739; and
(2) he wrote a note in which he asserted that he had been peddling for 20 years.

If the note is true, it must have been written, at the latest, in 1759. If the note had been written in 1765, then it would be inaccurate. Therefore, (c) MUST be true.

COULD the arrest record have been written after the undated statement? Sure, maybe 1739 was his 50th anniversary of peddling - we have no clue. Since we have no clue if it's true or not, (d) is definitely NOT the correct answer to an inference question. (a), (b) and (e) are also things that COULD be true, but that's not what we're looking for.

Thanks very much.

Khurram

i must admit that C seems to be the answer. What's OA?