Critical Reasoning

richachampion wrote:

DavidG@VeritasPrep wrote:
Well, just because histidine production declined, doesn't necessarily mean that the plant isn't still producing large amounts of it. (If you make $2 billion in year one and $1.9 billion in year two, your profits have declined, but they're still pretty healthy.)

But the second point is 100% correct.

Hi David Previous poster has written this -

If we consider that "the concentration of histidine in the growing herb declines as the plant approaches maturity", then it seems to contradict the PREMISE in the argument that says that this herb produces large amounts of histidine as it grows

However Premise has altogether a different statement -

Agronomists studying the growth of this herb have discovered that it produces large amounts of histidine, an amino acid that, in test - tube solutions, renders these metals chemically inert.

Let us simplify what above is saying =
Agronomist while studying the growth of the herb discovered that it produces large amount of histidine.

Isn't it that this quiet different from what previous poster has said.

The gist of the discussion was whether it was acceptable to dismiss E on the grounds that an affirmative answer would contradict the premise that the herb produces large amounts of histidine. Because the premise never mentions how much histidine the herb produces/absorbs at various stages of its life cycle, that isn't necessarily the case. But the broader point is that how the histidine level changes over time isn't relevant. We know the herb produces a large amount of it. And we want to know if histidine is responsible for the herb's ability to grow in metal-rich soil. E wouldn't tell us this.

DavidG@VeritasPrep wrote:
The gist of the discussion was whether it was acceptable to dismiss E on the grounds that an affirmative answer would contradict the premise that the herb produces large amounts of histidine. Because the premise never mentions how much histidine the herb produces/absorbs at various stages of its life cycle, that isn't necessarily the case. But the broader point is that how the histidine level changes over time isn't relevant. We know the herb produces a large amount of it. And we want to know if histidine is responsible for the herb's ability to grow in metal-rich soil. E wouldn't tell us this.

David you will put this question in which category OUT OF THE FOLLOWING 4 CATEGORIES -

EASY MEDIUM HARD VERYHARD

richachampion wrote:

DavidG@VeritasPrep wrote:
The gist of the discussion was whether it was acceptable to dismiss E on the grounds that an affirmative answer would contradict the premise that the herb produces large amounts of histidine. Because the premise never mentions how much histidine the herb produces/absorbs at various stages of its life cycle, that isn't necessarily the case. But the broader point is that how the histidine level changes over time isn't relevant. We know the herb produces a large amount of it. And we want to know if histidine is responsible for the herb's ability to grow in metal-rich soil. E wouldn't tell us this.

David you will put this question in which category OUT OF THE FOLLOWING 4 CATEGORIES -

EASY MEDIUM HARD VERYHARD

I tend not to dwell on how to categorize questions in terms of difficulty. The most important thing on verbal is to be relentless and pay attention to the details in the language, irrespective of how that question might be rated. Typically, the denser the language, the harder the question, even though the underlying logic may be fairly straight-forward once you see it. (If I had to guess, I'd say this one is somewhere between median and hard, but 1) that's just a guess, and 2) the difficulty level shouldn't impact your approach.)