Critical Reasoning

q-From time to time, the press indulges in outbursts of indignation over the use of false or misleading information by the U.S. government in support of its policies and programs. No one endorses needless deception. But consider this historical analogy. It is known that Christopher Columbus, on his first voyage to the New World, deliberately falsified the log to show a shorter sailing distance for each day out than the ships had actually traveled. In this way, Columbus was able to convince his skeptical sailors that they had not sailed past the point at which they expected to find the shores of India. Without this deception, Columbus's sailors might well have mutinied, and the New World might never have been discovered.

Which of the following is the main weakness of the historical analogy drawn in the passage above?
(A) The sailors in Columbus's crew never knew that they had been deceived, while government deception is generally uncovered by the press.
(B) A ship's log is a record intended mainly for use by the captain, while press reports are generally disseminated for use by the public at large.
(C) The members of a ship's crew are selected by the captain of the ship, while those who work in the press are self-selected.
(D) The crew of a ship is responsible for the success of a voyage, while the press is not responsible for the use others make of the factual information it publishes.
(E) In a democracy, the people are expected to participate in the nation's political decision making, while the members of a ship's crew are expected simply to obey the orders of the captain.











regards,

ansuman

IMO A

IMO E

(wrongly clicked on 'Thanks' to the thread starter )

hi,

thanks for the reply.
will you please explain why will it be "E"?

looking forward to your response.

regards,

Ansuman

Even I chose A but the answer should be E

No one endorses needless deception-here people knew the deception is not necessary
Without this deception, Columbus’s sailors might well have mutinied-columbus used deception

A is simply restating what it is written on passage not weakening
So left with E.

What is the source of this question ?
It can never be E.

Does the psg talking anything about Democracy ?? Its not at all mentioned in the passage.

Question is ''Which of the following is the main weekness of the analogy drawn in the psg ?'' AND not ''Which of the following if true will weeken the analogy shown above ?''

Even if 2nd one is the question, then also we need to assume that U S is a democratic country.


We should not use our own subject knowledge in solving CR questions.

This is a poorly framed question and E is completely out of scope from many grounds.

Phirozz wrote:What is the source of this question ?
It can never be E.

Does the psg talking anything about Democracy ?? Its not at all mentioned in the passage.

Question is ''Which of the following is the main weekness of the analogy drawn in the psg ?'' AND not ''Which of the following if true will weeken the analogy shown above ?''

Even if 2nd one is the question, then also we need to assume that U S is a democratic country.


We should not use our own subject knowledge in solving CR questions.

This is a poorly framed question and E is completely out of scope from many grounds.

Yes I agree here, we cannot assume the democracy clause here. I like A mre

From time to time, the press indulges in outbursts of indignation over the use of false or misleading information by the U.S. government in support of its policies and programs. No one endorses needless deception. But consider this historical analogy. It is known that Christopher Columbus, on his first voyage to the New World, deliberately falsified the log to show a shorter sailing distance for each day out than the ships had actually traveled. In this way, Columbus was able to convince his skeptical sailors that they had not sailed past the point at which they expected to find the shores of India. Without this deception, Columbus’s sailors might well have mutinied, and the New World might never have been discovered.

Which of the following is the main weakness of the historical analogy drawn in the passage above?
(A) The sailors in Columbus’s crew never knew that they had been deceived, while government deception is generally uncovered by the press.
(E) In a democracy, the people are expected to participate in the nation’s political decision making, while the members of a ship’s crew are expected simply to obey the orders of the captain.

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Issue: No one endorses needless deception. Author back the issue with columbus example and tries to draw an analogy - says "like columbus, government also has some 'positive' purpose in mind while decepting.

But the problem is unlike columbus era, present era has things like 'press' to expose the deception (which were missing earlier)...there was no way columbus crew had known the truth. The two situation are not similar to draw an analogy. Therefore A is correct.

There is another problem in E (apart from the word democracy....request expert to suggest whether we can cut this option out just on the word 'democracy)- E says ...crew is simply expected to obey the orders (its was not the case...had been that the case...it was not necessary for columbus to hide the truth from his crew. Because he was afraid that his crew might revolt he had to hide the truth).

Request for BTGizens review.

I am pretty sure , this one is a poorly framed question with poorly framed answers.

Option A:Analogy is itself weak. SO what is the big fun in finding the weakness in Analogy!!

Option E:Usage of wrd democracy....!!

Plz let us know the source!