Critical Reasoning

Jim: The United States Mint has recently announced that the rising cost of raw copper, nickel, and zinc has pushed the cost of manufacturing each penny and nickel to more than 1 cent and 5 cents respectively. In addition, there are very few, if any, items that can be purchased for 5 cents, and virtually none that can be purchased for a penny. Since it appears that both the penny and the nickel no longer provide a necessary function in today's economy, I propose that the government simply stop minting the coins at a loss and declare the base unit of U.S. currency to be the dime.

Mary: Don't be silly. This would mean that all prices would round up to the nearest dime and nobody would go for that. There is simply no way that Congress would approve, much less consider, such an unpopular measure.

In her response to Jim, Mary does all of the following EXCEPT:
a) Makes an assumption about how Jim's proposal would affect prices.
b) Implies that Congressional approval is necessary for Jim's proposal to take effect.
c) Provides a reason why Jim's proposal would be difficult to implement, regardless of its justification.
d) Assumes that Congress will never approve a policy that has little public support.
e) Attempts to undermine all or some of the premises upon which Jim justifies his proposal.

what is the best way to deal such questions

thephoenix wrote:Jim: The United States Mint has recently announced that the rising cost of raw copper, nickel, and zinc has pushed the cost of manufacturing each penny and nickel to more than 1 cent and 5 cents respectively. In addition, there are very few, if any, items that can be purchased for 5 cents, and virtually none that can be purchased for a penny. Since it appears that both the penny and the nickel no longer provide a necessary function in today's economy, I propose that the government simply stop minting the coins at a loss and declare the base unit of U.S. currency to be the dime.

Mary: Don't be silly. This would mean that all prices would round up to the nearest dime and nobody would go for that. There is simply no way that Congress would approve, much less consider, such an unpopular measure.

In her response to Jim, Mary does all of the following EXCEPT:


a) Makes an assumption about how Jim's proposal would affect prices.
b) Implies that Congressional approval is necessary for Jim's proposal to take effect.
c) Provides a reason why Jim's proposal would be difficult to implement, regardless of its justification.
d) Assumes that Congress will never approve a policy that has little public support.
e) Attempts to undermine all or some of the premises upon which Jim justifies his proposal.

what is the best way to deal such questions

In an Inference type question, out of 5 answer choices 1 correct answer choice will be 'inferred' and 4 answer choice will not be 'inferred' from the stimulus. However, if EXCEPT is added to the inference question it means that 4 answer choices will 'infer' and 1 answer choice will not 'infer'.

Hence in an EXCEPT INFERENCE question our job is to find that 1 answer choice which cannot be 'inferred' from the given passage.

My pick here is (C) because Mary infers all of the remaining four answer choices except (C).

In her response to Jim, Mary does all of the following EXCEPT:

a) Makes an assumption about how Jim’s proposal would affect prices.

Yes .She makes an assumption. How can we say that? Go back to the argument.Look for the key words.Mary says..."This would mean that all price...." " would mean....." hints that she is assuming something which may or may not be real.

b) Implies that Congressional approval is necessary for Jim’s proposal to take effect.

Yes.Again take the cue from her response. look for key words.

c) Provides a reason why Jim’s proposal would be difficult to implement, regardless of its justification.

Not sure.Lets hold on.We will come back to it in a while.

d) Assumes that Congress will never approve a policy that has little public support.

Oh yeah.She yells in her statement that .."nobody would go for that.."Nobody is a strong word for " little public support".


e) Attempts to undermine all or some of the premises upon which Jim justifies his proposal.

Yeah Obviously, She is trying to oppose him.

So C stands out. Mary doesn't seem to give any reason why Jim’s proposal would be difficult to implement.

That makes C to be the winner!!

OMG..people are getting very active these days...By the time i was editing my post I saw Ms. Komal bombarding the query with her post...Awesome..

gmatmachoman wrote:In her response to Jim, Mary does all of the following EXCEPT:

a) Makes an assumption about how Jim’s proposal would affect prices.

Yes .She makes an assumption. How can we say that? Go back to the argument.Look for the key words.Mary says..."This would mean that all price...." " would mean....." hints that she is assuming something which may or may not be real.

b) Implies that Congressional approval is necessary for Jim’s proposal to take effect.

Yes.Again take the cue from her response. look for key words.

c) Provides a reason why Jim’s proposal would be difficult to implement, regardless of its justification.

Not sure.Lets hold on.We will come back to it in a while.

d) Assumes that Congress will never approve a policy that has little public support.

Oh yeah.She yells in her statement that .."nobody would go for that.."Nobody is a strong word for " little public support".


e) Attempts to undermine all or some of the premises upon which Jim justifies his proposal.

Yeah Obviously, She is trying to oppose him.

So C stands out. Mary doesn't seem to give any reason why Jim’s proposal would be difficult to implement.

That makes C to be the winner!!

Wow that was some awesome explanation : )

I will go with E for this.

She is not attacking the premises of the argument of Jim. But she provides a new outlook in to it.

As far as C is concerned, yes though the justification is there, she tries to provide a reason for the probable denial of Jim's stance (public disapproval)

This post can clear up the major confusion and also provide the OA.

https://www.manhattangmat.com/forums/jim ... t3743.html

Official explanation:

Jim initially presents two premises: 1) it costs more to make a penny and a nickel than their face value; and 2) there is little that can be bought for a penny or a nickel. He goes on to opine that the coins no longer provide any necessary function in the economy, then concludes with a proposal to remove the coins from circulation and declare the basic unit of American currency to be 10 cents.

Mary responds by making several assumptions about the practical effects of the plan, implying that such a policy could never be implemented.

(A) All prices rounding up to the nearest dime would certainly be a negative consequence from a consumer viewpoint, and this contention is not presented anywhere in the passage as a statement of fact; it is simply an assumption made by Mary.

(B) By asserting that Congress would not approve such a proposal, Mary implies that such approval is necessary in order to implement Jim's plan.

(C) Mary provides an argument that such a proposal would have little practical chance of being implemented because of its unpopularity, which in fact is not necessarily correlated with whether the proposal would save money.

(D) Despite the proposal's obvious monetary benefit, Mary states that "Congress would never approve such an unpopular measure." Mary is assuming Congress will think the popularity of the measure is more important than the potential monetary benefit.

(E) CORRECT. Mary's response is based on her assertion that Congress would not approve Jim's proposal because she assumes that it would be extremely unpopular. She does not attack or even mention any of Jim's premises underlying his proposal.