Critical Reasoning

The postal service is badly mismanaged. Forty years ago, first-class letter delivery cost only three cents. Since then, the price has increased nearly tenfold, with an actual decrease in the speed and reliability of service.

Each of the following statements, if true, would tend to weaken the argument above EXCEPT:

(A) The volume of mail handled by the postal service has increased dramatically over the last forty years.
(B) Unprecedented increases in the cost of fuel for trucks and planes have put severe upward pressures on postal delivery costs.
(C) Private delivery services usually charge more than does the postal service for comparable delivery charges.
(D) The average delivery time for a first-class letter four decades ago was actually slightly longer than it is today.
(E) The average level of consumer prices overall has increased more than 300 percent over the last forty years.

OA will come after a few explanations

A) The volume of mail handled by the postal service has increased dramatically over the last forty years- Strengths, since there are more letters the speed is slower now
(B) Unprecedented increases in the cost of fuel for trucks and planes have put severe upward pressures on postal delivery costs- Strengths
(C) Private delivery services usually charge more than does the postal service for comparable delivery charges. – out of scope, we don’t care about private delivery services
(D) The average delivery time for a first-class letter four decades ago was actually slightly longer than it is today. – This will weaken the argument, before the delivery of the mail was slower than now
(E) The average level of consumer prices overall has increased more than 300 percent over the last forty years.- Too general and again, this justified why the postal service rates have increased

Anwser is D

This is a "weaken except" question not a "weaken the argument" question

A, B and D clearly weaken the argument.

In E, average consumer prices have gone up 3 fold while postal prices
have gone up 10 fold. So, it doesn't weaken the argument.

In C, there's no correlation between price and reliability of the current
postal service. So, it is rather orthogonal to the main argument.

Between C and E, E seems to be more pertinent.

The argument says POST OFFICE is doing poorly...
Only D says that it is actually doing better ....

A - They work more hence more errors
B- Cost increased due to other factors
C- Private delivery - Out of scope
E- Same as B..


OA Plz....

OA is E

jrbrown2 wrote:OA is E

It should Be E because that choice is straw man to weaken the argumet which is not considered good hence not able to weaken.

jrbrown2 wrote:The postal service is badly mismanaged. Forty years ago, first-class letter delivery cost only three cents. Since then, the price has increased nearly tenfold, with an actual decrease in the speed and reliability of service.

Each of the following statements, if true, would tend to weaken the argument above EXCEPT:

(A) The volume of mail handled by the postal service has increased dramatically over the last forty years.
(B) Unprecedented increases in the cost of fuel for trucks and planes have put severe upward pressures on postal delivery costs.
(C) Private delivery services usually charge more than does the postal service for comparable delivery charges.
(D) The average delivery time for a first-class letter four decades ago was actually slightly longer than it is today.
(E) The average level of consumer prices overall has increased more than 300 percent over the last forty years.

OA will come after a few explanations

I think both A and E strenghtrn (not weaken) argument. Why A is not true?

jrbrown2 wrote:The postal service is badly mismanaged. Forty years ago, first-class letter delivery cost only three cents. Since then, the price has increased nearly tenfold, with an actual decrease in the speed and reliability of service.

Each of the following statements, if true, would tend to weaken the argument above EXCEPT:

(A) The volume of mail handled by the postal service has increased dramatically over the last forty years.
(B) Unprecedented increases in the cost of fuel for trucks and planes have put severe upward pressures on postal delivery costs.
(C) Private delivery services usually charge more than does the postal service for comparable delivery charges.
(D) The average delivery time for a first-class letter four decades ago was actually slightly longer than it is today.
(E) The average level of consumer prices overall has increased more than 300 percent over the last forty years.

OA will come after a few explanations

I think both A and E strenghtrn (not weaken) argument. Why A is not true?

IMO:E

A is also a candidate, but is negated by the price factor in E.

The argument has price as the primary concern, the price has increased nearly tenfold
Hence E wins over A