Surpised this hasn't been answered..EASY? GMAT PREP

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Offshore oil-drillng operations entail an unavoidable risk of an oil spill, but importing oil on tankers presently entails an even greater such risk per barrel of oil. Therefore, if we are to reduce the risk of an oil spill without curtailing our use of oil, we must invest more in offshore operations and import less oil on tankers.

Which of the following, if true, most seriously weakens the argument above?

Tankers can easily be redesigned so that their use entails less risk of an oil spill.

Oil spills caused by tankers have generally been more serious than those caused by offshore operations.

The impact of offshore opeartions on the enviornment can be controlld by careful managment.

Offshore operations usually damage the ocean floor, but tankers rarely cause sch damage.

Importing oil on tankers is currently less expensive than drilling for it offshore.


OA is A.
Source: — Critical Reasoning |

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by jazzcat4u » Mon Sep 29, 2008 11:07 am
Ask yourself these quesions

• How to identify the premise?
• How to identify the conclusion?
• How to weaken an argument?

How to identify the premise?
In this argument it is (a) offshore ops are risky (b) tankers are even riskier
How to identify the conclusion?
In this argument it is - therefore to reduce risk, invest in offshore operations and import less oil on tankers
How to weaken an argument? There are several ways to weaken an argument, you can (a) attack the premises (b) find alternative conclusions or causations (c) find flaws in reasoning (d) find the worse case scenario (e) identify a counter premise (f) find disadvantages to a plan or conclusion etc etc...

The only option that provides an alternative to the conclusion and attacks the premise at the same time is choice A. Also, if you are down to your last 20 seconds, note that out of all the answer choices, it is the only choice that includes the word "risk".

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by veenu08 » Sun Aug 18, 2013 8:00 pm
Hello,

Can anyone please explain to me how to rule out E

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Veenu [/spoiler]

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by [email protected] » Sun Aug 18, 2013 11:03 pm
Hi veenu08,

If you re-read the prompt, you'll notice that the entire discussion revolves around "risk" - "risk" of using an oil rig vs. "risk" of shipping by tanker. At no point does the COST of acquiring oil factor into the discussion. That's why answer E is incorrect.

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by Nitin.811g » Sun Aug 25, 2013 1:12 am
A it should be since it directly weakens the premise of oil spilling from tankers. Others though looks relevant to the passage but do not impact the final conclusion of importing less tankers.