Critical Reasoning

I will post the OA later, but can someone explain what is the conclusion in this argument also, what does "A questionable assumption" type of question really look for:

The general availability of high-quality electronic scanners and color printers for computers has made the counterfeiting of checks much easier. In order to deter such counterfeiting, several banks plan to issue to their corporate customers checks that contain dots too small to be accurately duplicated by any electronic scanner currently available; when such checks are scanned and printed, the dots seem to blend together in such a way that the word "VOID" appears on the check

A questionable assumption of the plan is that

A. in the territory served by the banks the proportion of counterfeit checks that are made using electronic scanners has remained approximately constant over the past few years
B. most counterfeiters who use electronic scanners counterfeit checks only for relatively large amounts of money
C. the smallest dots on the proposed checks cannot be distinguished visually except under strong magnification
D. most corporations served by these banks will not have to pay more for the new checks than for traditional checks
E. the size of the smallest dots that generally available electronic scanners are able to reproduce accurately will not decrease significantly in the near future.

IMO the answer is E.

E says that the argument relies on the assumption that the printers will not be able to print smaller dots accurately in the near future.

vineetbatra wrote: E. the size of the smallest dots that ... scanners are able to reproduce accurately will not decrease significantly in the near future.

if the size that the scanners are accurately able to produce decreases then they are able to reproduce smaller sized dots thereby circumventing the efforts of the banks.

I think "questionable assumption" questions should be treated just like assumption questions. It's questionability is irrelevant so long as it is the assumption on which the argument relies on. I suppose this assumption is questionable because it is not likely that the generally available printers will suddenly improve. It is more likely that their will be improved scanners that are brought into the market.

Should be the following

D. most corporations served by these banks will not have to pay more for the new checks than for traditional checks

It is assumed that the cost of the transfer to the new system is not going to have additional costs...This is a questionable assumption...

And E seems to more implied from the last premise....

can you post the OA pl....

OA please!

OA: E

mpaudena wrote:IMO the answer is E.

if the size that the scanners are accurately able to produce decreases then they are able to reproduce smaller sized dots thereby circumventing the efforts of the banks.

Thanks for the response the OA is E, and I selected E because no other answer was good enough; however I still have a doubt.

E says that the Size of the smallest dots generally available electronic scanners are able to reproduce accurately will not decrease

If the size itself will not decrease then it kindda contradicts the stimulus in which it says that the size of the dots will decrease. This is the part which I am not able to comprehend.

It does sort of contradict and that is the reason it is a questionable assumption. Here is what the stimulus says:

vineetbatra wrote: .... several banks plan to issue to their corporate customers checks that contain dots too small to be accurately duplicated by any electronic scanner currently available....

The scanners currently available cannot accurately duplicate the dots on the new checks...

E says that the argument assumes that the ability of the scanners to duplicate dots will not improve. If the size of the dots the currently available scanners can duplicate is reduced then the banks efforts are thwarted. So the assumption is that the size will not get smaller.

mpaudena wrote:It does sort of contradict and that is the reason it is a questionable assumption. Here is what the stimulus says:

vineetbatra wrote: .... several banks plan to issue to their corporate customers checks that contain dots too small to be accurately duplicated by any electronic scanner currently available....

The scanners currently available cannot accurately duplicate the dots on the new checks...

E says that the argument assumes that the ability of the scanners to duplicate dots will not improve. If the size of the dots the currently available scanners can duplicate is reduced then the banks efforts are thwarted. So the assumption is that the size will not get smaller.

Nice reply!!

Does Questionable assumption is it of the format "All the below are all assumptions EXCEPT"??

Please share ur input.

thanks, mpaudena!

I made the mistake of elimating E because it said "....in the future"

I thought well, the future isnt mentioned anywhere in the stimulus so its irrelevant. I think I should have looked at the overall meaning.

Thanks for the explanations

Does Questionable assumption is it of the format "All the below are all assumptions EXCEPT"??

Hi gmatmachoman,

Definitely not. A "questionable assumption" is the same as any plain jane necessary assumption question. For the bank's technology to work, generally available scanners can't get better at scanning at small dots. If general scanners got better at scanning small dots (that is, if the size of the dots they are able to scan decreased), then the bank's technology/plan may fail. As such E is a necessary assumption for the argument.

Testluv wrote:

Does Questionable assumption is it of the format "All the below are all assumptions EXCEPT"??

Hi gmatmachoman,

Definitely not. A "questionable assumption" is the same as any plain jane necessary assumption question. For the bank's technology to work, generally available scanners can't get better at scanning at small dots. If general scanners got better at scanning small dots (that is, if the size of the dots they are able to scan decreased), then the bank's technology/plan may fail. As such E is a necessary assumption for the argument.

Many Thx @Testluv,

I understand that one now...

Testluv wrote:

Does Questionable assumption is it of the format "All the below are all assumptions EXCEPT"??

Hi gmatmachoman,

Definitely not. A "questionable assumption" is the same as any plain jane necessary assumption question. For the bank's technology to work, generally available scanners can't get better at scanning at small dots. If general scanners got better at scanning small dots (that is, if the size of the dots they are able to scan decreased), then the bank's technology/plan may fail. As such E is a necessary assumption for the argument.

The argument says contain dots too small to be accurately duplicated by any electronic scanner currently available; .... It talks only about the currently available scanner..furthermore the argument is open to the possibility that the scanner can get better in future and it doesn't say the problem will be gone forever.... so shouldn't option E be out of scope?

Am I missing sth?

Onell wrote:

Testluv wrote:

Does Questionable assumption is it of the format "All the below are all assumptions EXCEPT"??

Hi gmatmachoman,

Definitely not. A "questionable assumption" is the same as any plain jane necessary assumption question. For the bank's technology to work, generally available scanners can't get better at scanning at small dots. If general scanners got better at scanning small dots (that is, if the size of the dots they are able to scan decreased), then the bank's technology/plan may fail. As such E is a necessary assumption for the argument.

The argument says contain dots too small to be accurately duplicated by any electronic scanner currently available; .... It talks only about the currently available scanner..furthermore the argument is open to the possibility that the scanner can get better in future and it doesn't say the problem will be gone forever.... so shouldn't option E be out of scope?

Am I missing sth?

According to argument it possible in future.However it has to be assumed that high quality scanner will not be available in future to conclude that counterfeiting can be avoided.