Most Geologists believe..

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Most Geologists believe..

by Mani_mba » Mon Oct 20, 2008 9:41 pm
Most geologists believe oil results from chemical transformations of hydrocarbons derived from organisms buried under ancient seas. Suppose, instead, that oil actually results from bacterial action on other complex hydrocarbons that are trapped within the Earth. As is well
known, the volume of these hydrocarbons exceeds that of buried organisms. Therefore, our oil reserves would be greater than most geologists believe.
Which of the following, if true, gives the strongest support to the argument above about our oil reserves?
(A) Most geologists think optimistically about the Earth's reserves of oil.
(B) Most geologists have performed accurate chemical analyses on previously discovered oil reserves.
(C) Ancient seas are buried within the Earth at many places where fossils are abundant.
(D) The only bacteria yet found in oil reserves could have leaked down drill holes from surface contaminants.
(E) Chemical transformations reduce the volume of buried hydrocarbons derived from organisms by roughly the same proportion as bacterial action reduces the volume of other complex hydrocarbons.

Plz explain...
Source: — Critical Reasoning |

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by stop@800 » Tue Oct 21, 2008 12:15 am
Difficult one

IMO E
Would like to save my typing effort if E is not the OA :)
so explanation after OA.

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by Jatinder » Tue Oct 21, 2008 1:12 am
IMO E

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by Mani_mba » Tue Oct 21, 2008 9:28 am
Yes OA is E. Plz explain.

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by SYim » Tue Oct 21, 2008 9:30 am
IMO E too

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by raunekk » Tue Oct 21, 2008 11:20 am
imo:E

may i know d source pls,,

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Re: Most Geologists believe..

by codesnooker » Tue Oct 21, 2008 2:32 pm
This is the nice one. Even I was stumbled upon choice (D) as on first reading it was not clear to me. But after reading OA, doubt is clear.

A) Out of scope. Hence INCORRECT

B) Leads to opposite to the conclusion. If the analysis would have done correctly then as premises said that according to geologist the oil is from the fossils rather than the HCs. Hence INCORRECT

C) Again leads to opposite to the conclusion. If fossils were in abundant then abundant oil would be result from fossils as per geologist conclusion. But this doesn't strengthen the conclusion. Hence INCORRECT

D) Again leads to the opposite side of the conclusion. If bacterias that can turn HC in fuels, are only found at the surface of the earth then bacterias cannot turn the trapped HC in the earth to the fuels. Hence INCORRECT

E) Perfect choice: If mass reduction with the processing of HCs is same as with the processing of fossil fuel then may be geologist are wrong with their conclusion. Then yes, the fuel will be more as HC are more than buried organisms. Hence, CORRECT

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by Bidisha800 » Tue Oct 21, 2008 5:22 pm
Other than (E), rest are not even related to oil, oil volume & bacteria
Drill baby drill !

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by rohangupta83 » Wed Oct 22, 2008 5:38 am
(E)

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by khanshainur » Thu May 12, 2016 12:04 pm
E seems to be the best choice here