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Boldface.... :(

by amysky_0205 » Sat Dec 22, 2012 6:36 pm
Hunter: Hunters alone are blamed for the decline in Greenrock National Forest's deer population over the past ten years. Yet clearly, black bears have also played an important role in this decline. In the past ten years, the forest's protected black bear population has risen sharply, and examination of black bears found dead in the forest during the deer hunting season showed that a number of them had recently fed on deer.

In the hunter's argument, the boldface portion plays which of the following roles?

A. It is the main conclusion of the argument.
B. It is an objection that has been raised against the main conclusion of the argument.
C. It is a judgment that the argument opposes.
D. It is a finding that the argument seeks to explain
E. It is a biased observation of the hunter

OA: A

can someone explain this?
I chose D instead... thank u!
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by lunarpower » Sat Dec 22, 2012 9:09 pm
amysky_0205 wrote:Hunter: Hunters alone are blamed for the decline in Greenrock National Forest's deer population over the past ten years. Yet clearly, black bears have also played an important role in this decline. In the past ten years, the forest's protected black bear population has risen sharply, and examination of black bears found dead in the forest during the deer hunting season showed that a number of them had recently fed on deer.

In the hunter's argument, the boldface portion plays which of the following roles?

A. It is the main conclusion of the argument.
B. It is an objection that has been raised against the main conclusion of the argument.
C. It is a judgment that the argument opposes.
D. It is a finding that the argument seeks to explain
E. It is a biased observation of the hunter

OA: A

can someone explain this?
I chose D instead... thank u!
first, note the word "finding" in the choice you picked. the boldface statement can't be a "finding" -- a finding is the factual result (like an observation or statistic) of some sort of investigation.
the boldfaced statement is a claim, not a fact. (if this isn't clear from context, note the word "clearly" before that statement. you can't put "clearly" -- or any other transition like it, such as "must be..." or "apparently" or etc. -- in front of a fact; those things only go in front of claims.)

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by lunarpower » Sat Dec 22, 2012 9:19 pm
in fact, you can actually "cheat" on this problem by noticing that the boldface statement is the only claim in the entire passage!
these passages will always have claims (not facts) as conclusions, so, if the passage contains only one claim, that claim must be the conclusion.

even if you notice that little "trick", though, you should still be able to determine, in reading the argument, that the boldface is the conclusion.
if you have any doubts, just try the statements in different orders, with the word "therefore" in between.

black bears have also played an important role in this decline. therefore, [facts]
--> this doesn't make sense.

[facts]; therefore, black bears have also played an important role in this decline.
--> this makes sense.
so, "black bears have also played an important role in this decline" is the conclusion.
Ron has been teaching various standardized tests for 20 years.

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by kartik22 » Tue Dec 25, 2012 2:08 pm
hi ron,

I did pick A as the correct answer.

But I did spend time deciding between A and D.

D tries to go the distance and even mentions 'hunter' in the answer choice. However, I picked up A because i felt that 'it is not a biased observation' because hunter is giving reasons for why he believed that bears also play a role in blahh...
another thing i felt was gmat wanted me to fall for the trap in D. it stated hunter in the answer choice trying to make it look more attractive.

i feel that most of the times following types of answer choices are wrong:
1)one that is most attractive (in RC)
2)one that stands out (both in RC and SC)
eg. i have solved over 100's sc questions and i am always trying to find the pattern, the gmat way of crafting wrong and right answers and i feel that in SC if gmat gives u a choice that clearly stands out from the word go then it is most probably wrong because if that was the right choice then u would immediately pick it up and move on and save time. that way gmat is no more a tough nut to crack. gmat wants us to waste time deciding between options.

I would request you to express your views on what i wrote earlier. is my break down of gmat pattern any good? please do add your two cents.

btw, i havn't broken down gmat's RC approach it would be nice if you can comment on how gmat tricks us.

thanks a lot for your eternal presence on this forums and all the others!

-K
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by lunarpower » Sun Dec 30, 2012 6:07 am
hi,
kartik22 wrote: eg. i have solved over 100's sc questions and i am always trying to find the pattern, the gmat way of crafting wrong and right answers
in general, this is probably not the best way to spend your time; you would be better served by cultivating your understanding of how the questions actually work, rather than looking for "patterns". it's very unlikely that you will discover any heretofore unknown "quick tricks" for this exam.
and i feel that in SC if gmat gives u a choice that clearly stands out from the word go then it is most probably wrong because if that was the right choice then u would immediately pick it up and move on and save time.
well, this statement is not something that can be generalized.

for instance, test takers who are experienced writers or editors can usually solve the SC problems by, essentially, just looking at them and using pure intuition, while people who are less experienced with written english couldn't do the same.

also, certain correct answers in critical reasoning may well be "obvious" (again, to some test takers, but not to others). for instance, on some strengthening/weakening problems, there may be one quite apparent way to strengthen or weaken the argument.

in any case, one of the attractive qualities of the gmat exam is that it really doesn't contain "tricks".
sure, there are lots of answer choices that may look attractive if you aren't paying enough attention to relevant details, or if you misunderstand the original problem, or whatever. however, there really aren't any "stick a foot out and trip you" answer choices.
I would request you to express your views on what i wrote earlier. is my break down of gmat pattern any good? please do add your two cents.
well, the problem with the "patterns" that you've described above is that they aren't really patterns, at least not in any objective sense.

the only two criteria you listed are (1) "don't pick attractive choices" and (2) "don't pick choices that stand out".
first, these statements don't have any objective meaning; their meaning depends entirely on what seems "attractive" or seems to "stand out" to you in particular.
second, as i noted above, this advice is good for some people and bad for others. for instance, if you told an experienced writer not to pick the "most attractive" choice on SC problems, then he or she would get pretty much everything wrong.
btw, i havn't broken down gmat's RC approach it would be nice if you can comment on how gmat tricks us.
again, there aren't really any "tricks" in the true sense of the word. there are lots of problems in which you need to be duly diligent and focus on extremely particular things, but there won't be instances in which gmac sticks its foot out and tries to trip you.
Ron has been teaching various standardized tests for 20 years.

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Quand on se sent bien dans un vêtement, tout peut arriver. Un bon vêtement, c'est un passeport pour le bonheur.

Yves Saint-Laurent

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