Critical Reasoning

GMatIlove wrote:I am not convinced with the answer for one simple question. As the "as the Distopians foresaw, Distopia's federal expenses for the intervention were eight billion dollars, whereas, during the war, profits from the Distopian industrialists' facilities in Arcadia totaled only four billion dollars. "

If the industrialists foresaw that they would make 4 billion out of the 8 billion they invest , how can they anticipate profits?

The answer choice (b) says that "The largest proportion of Distopia's federal expenses is borne by those who receive no
significant industrial profits". If this is true then why would the industrialists agree to invest in the 8 billion at all is they know they are going to make a loss. Hence it does not weaken the argument that they did not do this for profits. It infact strengthens the argument to an extent that the did not anticipate any profits in this venture.

Could I please get an explanation on this one.

For me C seems to be right.

reachac wrote:Industrialists from the country Distopia were accused of promoting the Distopian intervention in the Arcadian civil war merely to insure that the industrialists� facilities in Arcadia made substantial profits during the war. Yet this cannot be the motive since, as the Distopians foresaw, Distopia�s federal expenses for the intervention were eight billion dollars, whereas, during the war, profits from the Distopian industrialists� facilities in Arcadia totaled only four billion dollars.
Which of the following, if true, exposes a serious flaw in the argument made in the second sentence above?
(A) During the Arcadian war, many Distopian industrialists with facilities located in Arcadia experienced a significant rise in productivity in their facilities located in Distopia.
(B) The largest proportion of Distopia�s federal expenses is borne by those who receive no significant industrial profits.
(C) Most Distopian industrialists� facilities located in Arcadia are expected to maintain the level of profits they achieved during the war.
(D) Distopian industrialists� facilities in Arcadia made substantial profits before the events that triggered the civil war.
(E) Many Distopians expressed concern over the suffering that Arcadians underwent during the civil war.

arpita@gurome wrote:

FightWithGMAT wrote:

reachac wrote:Industrialists from the country Distopia were accused of promoting the Distopian intervention in the Arcadian civil war merely to insure that the industrialists� facilities in Arcadia made substantial profits during the war. Yet this cannot be the motive since, as the Distopians foresaw, Distopia�s federal expenses for the intervention were eight billion dollars, whereas, during the war, profits from the Distopian industrialists� facilities in Arcadia totaled only four billion dollars.
Which of the following, if true, exposes a serious flaw in the argument made in the second sentence above?
(A) During the Arcadian war, many Distopian industrialists with facilities located in Arcadia experienced a significant rise in productivity in their facilities located in Distopia.
(B) The largest proportion of Distopia�s federal expenses is borne by those who receive no significant industrial profits.
(C) Most Distopian industrialists� facilities located in Arcadia are expected to maintain the level of profits they achieved during the war.
(D) Distopian industrialists� facilities in Arcadia made substantial profits before the events that triggered the civil war.
(E) Many Distopians expressed concern over the suffering that Arcadians underwent during the civil war.

I am not convinced with B

IMO C

Distopia interferes Arcadia with a motive to gain profits. The Author says that this was not the motive because Distpoians calculated expenses and profits from the settings in Arcadia.

Why They did the calculations because they wanted to achieve certain level of profit from the war.

C says this clearly. Mere calculations of expenses and profits tell us that the prime motive was to gain profit.

Let's look at it another way:

This is a reasoning flaw question. In such questions we have to assume that whatever is given in the stimulus is true and we have to figure out which choice will break the logic.

Conclusion: this (promoting the Distopian intervention in the Arcadian civil war merely to insure that the industrialists' facilities in Arcadia made substantial profits ) cannot be the motive

Premises:
Premie 1 - Distopia's federal expenses for the intervention were eight billion dollars, whereas, during the war, profits from the Distopian industrialists' facilities in Arcadia totaled only four billion dollars.
Premise 2- Industrialists from the country Distopia were accused of promoting the Distopian intervention in the Arcadian civil war merely to insure that the industrialists' facilities in Arcadia made substantial profits during the war.

Moving to the choices:
A. This is not in the argument; we are looking at the facilities in Arcadia owned by Distopin businessmen. This choice talks about facilities in Distopia. Hence off base.
B. Aha interesting. Let us take a simple example say $100 is spent by the Distopian federal government, say $20 is borne by those who receive industrial profits (who would be industrialists!!) and $80 by people other than the industrialists. Great, furthermore even out of those $20 the share paid by industrialists having facilities in Arcadia is going to be much smaller, say it is $5, thus 5% of the federal expenses. Now look at the numbers of the argument, federal expenses $8 Billion, profits of the sub-group of industrialists $4 Billion, per the example given above they pay 0.05*8 = $0.4 Billion for making profits of $4 Billion not bad! Agreed, these numbers do not have concrete facts, but the way the argument is structured the Distopian industrialists having facilities in Arcadia will come out ahead always, and this was a hypothetical numbers based approach to show it. Thus if this choice is true, it weakens the logic that more is going out from industrialiats pockets than is coming in (premise 1 above). So we keep the choice.
C. This choice does not impact the choice. Hence out of the running.
D. This choice addresses a period before the war hence does not impact the argument.
E. Out of scope, the argument is about profits of the Distopian businessmen.

Thus we have done two things - eliminated all choices except B and clearly proven that B if B is true the argument is flawed.

Hence pick B

Hope this helps