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Expert replies
by sana.noor » Mon Oct 21, 2013 3:04 am
Three large companies and seven small companies currently manufacture a product with potential military
applications. If the government regulates the industry, it will institute a single set of manufacturing specifications to which all ten companies will have to adhere. In this case, therefore, since none of the seven small companies can afford to convert their production lines to a new set of manufacturing specifications, only the three large companies will be able to remain in business. Which of the following is an assumption on which the author's argument relies?
A. None of the three large companies will go out of business if the government does not regulate the manufacture of the product.
B. It would cost more to convert the production lines of the small companies to a new set of manufacturing specifications than it would to convert the production lines of the large companies.
C. Industry lobbyists will be unable to dissuade the government from regulating the industry.
D. Assembly of the product produced according to government manufacturing specifications would be more complex than current assembly procedures.
E. None of the seven small companies currently manufactures the product to a set of specifications that would match those the government would institute if the industry were to be regulated.

OA is E why not B?
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Source: — Critical Reasoning |

by theCodeToGMAT » Mon Oct 21, 2013 3:58 am
Solving by Negation Technique
{B} - INCORRECT; It would cost LESS to convert the production lines of the small companies to a new set of manufacturing specifications than it would to convert the production lines of the large companies. -- even though its less.. We are not told whether that amount is affordable for small companies.. For example: 1.1Million < 1.2 Million but Small companies can afford 10,000

{E} - CORRECT; ALL of the seven small companies currently manufactures the product to a set of specifications that would match those the government would institute if the industry were to be regulated. --- So, only 3 companies won't be left.. but,infact, all 10
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by [email protected] » Mon Oct 21, 2013 7:47 pm
Hi sana.noor,

From the prompt, we're NOT told how much the "conversion" would cost for any of the 10 companies; we're just told that all 10 companies would have to convert their production lines. Maybe the costs are the same for all 10 companies, maybe they're different, but we have no information at all on this subject. Thus, answer B doesn't make sense as an assumption in the context of our information.

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by Mike@Magoosh » Thu Oct 31, 2013 9:43 am
sana.noor wrote:Three large companies and seven small companies currently manufacture a product with potential military applications. If the government regulates the industry, it will institute a single set of manufacturing specifications to which all ten companies will have to adhere. In this case, therefore, since none of the seven small companies can afford to convert their production lines to a new set of manufacturing specifications, only the three large companies will be able to remain in business.
Which of the following is an assumption on which the author's argument relies?
A. None of the three large companies will go out of business if the government does not regulate the manufacture of the product.
B. It would cost more to convert the production lines of the small companies to a new set of manufacturing specifications than it would to convert the production lines of the large companies.
C. Industry lobbyists will be unable to dissuade the government from regulating the industry.
D. Assembly of the product produced according to government manufacturing specifications would be more complex than current assembly procedures.
E. None of the seven small companies currently manufactures the product to a set of specifications that would match those the government would institute if the industry were to be regulated.

OA is E why not B?
Dear sana.noor,
I'm happy to help with this. :-)

Here's the blog that talks about Assumptions and the Negation Test.
https://magoosh.com/gmat/2013/assumption ... -the-gmat/

Negate (B): It would cost no more to convert the production lines of the small companies to a new set of manufacturing specifications than it would to convert the production lines of the large companies. Suppose the cost of conversion is the same in all 10 companies, or suppose it's even slightly more expensive for the three large companies. In other case, if the larger companies are considerably larger and have correspondingly larger profits, the perhaps they can absorb the cost of conversion, whereas the small companies with small budgets cannot. Thus, the argument & conclusion can still work, even though we negate this statement. Therefore, this statement is not an assumption.

Negate (E): Some of the seven small companies currently manufactures the product to a set of specifications that would match those the government would institute if the industry were to be regulated. Notice, incidentally, the opposite of "none" is not "all" --- the opposite of "none" is "some". Well, if some of those small companies already have the correct specifications, then they would not have to spend a dime on conversion, and would be able to remain in business even if the government regulated the sector. This devastates the argument.
If we deny a statement, and the resulting negated statement poses a devastating objection to the argument, then that original statement is an assumption.

Does all this make sense?
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