Critical Reasoning

@Verbal Experts (Dave/Mitch/others) -

Could any of you please share your thoughts on my above concerns ?

Look forward to your feedback. Much thanks in advance!

RBBmba@2014 wrote:Hi Verbal Experts,
Please let me know the following -

Option A: what happens OCCASIONALLY with Married couples having same sleeping and waking patterns -- they get involved into arguments that can jeopardize their marriage.

(1) Thus, IMO,it contradicts the PREMISE/FACT given in the passage and as we know a PREMISE can't be contradicted.

This does not contradict what is said in the passage. The passage merely says that couples with different sleeping patterns have more arguments than do couples with similar sleeping patterns. So the argument does not say that couples that have similar sleeping patterns do not argue at all.

(2) Moreover, we can't infer IN GENERAL on the basis of what happens OCCASIONALLY!

Am I correct ?

That is correct.

Having said that, I will add that in some critical reasoning questions, the fact that something happens occasionally may be a key point.

RBBmba@2014 wrote:Hi Verbal Experts,
Please let me know the following -

Option A: what happens OCCASIONALLY with Married couples having same sleeping and waking patterns -- they get involved into arguments that can jeopardize their marriage.

(1) Thus, IMO,it contradicts the PREMISE/FACT given in the passage and as we know a PREMISE can't be contradicted.

This would only contradict the passage if we were told that couples with similar sleeping patterns NEVER have arguments that can jeopardize their marriage. As Marty noted, the passage doesn't make this claim. The fact that couple X fights more than couple Y does not mean that couple y never fights.

@Marty - I understand your other point completely. Although a quick question on the following...

Marty Murray wrote: Having said that, I will add that in some critical reasoning questions, the fact that something happens occasionally may be a key point.

Can you please shed some light on such instances ?

@Dave - curious to know your thoughts on this as well....

RBBmba@2014 wrote:

Marty Murray wrote: Having said that, I will add that in some critical reasoning questions, the fact that something happens occasionally may be a key point.

Can you please shed some light on such instances ?

@Dave - curious to know your thoughts on this as well....

What I am getting at is that conceivably a critical reasoning answer that says that something happens "occasionally" could be the best answer.

While you cannot infer that something happens often, or generally, from a statement that says that it happens "occasionally", you can infer that it happens sometimes rather than never, and what I was getting at in general is that the word "occasionally" is not in itself a sign that an answer choice is the wrong one. Depending on the context, an answer choice that uses the word "occasionally" could be just right.

RBBmba@2014 wrote:@Marty - I understand your other point completely. Although a quick question on the following...

Marty Murray wrote: Having said that, I will add that in some critical reasoning questions, the fact that something happens occasionally may be a key point.

Can you please shed some light on such instances ?

@Dave - curious to know your thoughts on this as well....

Generally speaking, modifiers are incredibly important on CR questions. Imagine you get a prompt about a company that is trying to generate more business by having a sale and undercutting its competitors. If customers occasionally make their purchase decisions based on price, that's not a great indicator that the plan will work. If customers often make their purchase decisions based on price, that's another story. So when you see modifiers such as "sometimes," "occasionally," "often," "rarely," "never," etc., it's a good idea to take note.