The Greek tragedy

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The Greek tragedy

by g_beatthegmat » Wed Jun 18, 2008 1:39 am
reviving an old thread, which deviated from the question(https://www.beatthegmat.com/cr-doubt-t4435.html), again here -

Greek tragedy, one of the enduring pillars of our belief system, dramatized the concept that the misfortune a person suffers is not an accident, but rather a logical outcome of flaws in that person's nature; the misfortune is thus that person's "fault." Nonetheless, today the public broadly supports bankruptcy protection, family welfare and other "social safety net" programs that shield the destitute in the face of their hardships, at taxpayer expense.

Which of the following, if true, would best resolve the paradox in the statements above?

A. The ancient Greeks had few, if any, such social safety net programs in their society.

B. The majority of the public is more familiar with the works of Shakespeare than those of Greek tragedy.

C. Some people insist that society, not the individual, is to blame for most accidents.

D. Many people in financial difficulties feel too ashamed to declare bankruptcy or to take advantage of other social safety net programs.

E. The religions practiced by most people today strongly encourage people to contribute to charities that assist innocent people injured in natural disasters, such as hurricanes.
Source: — Critical Reasoning |

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by Stuart@KaplanGMAT » Wed Jun 18, 2008 1:23 pm
In a paradox question we need to explain a supposedly surprising result. We want to identify what the surprise was and why the author thinks it's surprising.

We can summarize this stimulus as:

Ancient Greeks blamed people for their own problems. However, today, society helps people with their own problems.

My first reaction upon reading this was "who cares what the Greeks did?"

To explain the supposed paradox, we want to look for an answer that basically says "today people think differently than the Greeks did".

The only choice that matches is (C).

Let's see what's wrong with the remaining choices:

(a) well, that makes sense based on what the Greek's believed; however, doesn't explain why we have those things today.

(b) meant to be the most tempting of the wrong answers. However, the only way (b) could be relevant is if one knows that Shakespeare thought differently than the Greeks did. Since the relevance of (b) depends on outside knowledge, which is never presumed in CR, it must be outside the scope.

Here's a good rule for CR on test day: the more work you have to do to justify an answer choice, the less likely it is that the choice is correct.

An adjunct rule: if you read a choice and think "that would be a good answer IF xxx were true", and you don't know 100% that xxx is true, it's a bad answer!

(d) doesn't explain why those programs exist.

(e) innocent people and natural disasters are outside the scope - we're concerned with those who have authored their own misfortune.
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by Ian Stewart » Wed Jun 18, 2008 7:36 pm
Stuart Kovinsky wrote: Ancient Greeks blamed people for their own problems. However, today, society helps people with their own problems.
I think the problem here comes from the translation of the argument. In the question, what is relevant is that "the public broadly supports" helping people with problems. C only describes the opinions of 'some'; it does not help to justify the 'broad support' described in the question, which would require some kind of statement about 'most' of society.

I'd have to assume E is the correct answer, but I'd also guess this is not a real GMAT question; no answer choice is truly appropriate. While the ethos of Greek tragedy may be 'a pillar of our belief system', and it may be that misfortune is the fault of the individual, there is no paradox if the public at large believes that people with problems deserve support, even if they are to blame for their problems. E comes closest to resolving the paradox in this way, though it does mention 'innocent people', and in Greek tragedy, the misfortunate are not 'innocent'. That's why I don't think it's an ideal answer, even if it's better than the rest.

In any case, B and E are the only answers that describe the opinions of the majority of people, and it is the opinions of most of society that form the basis of the paradox. B is clearly wrong, for the reasons Stuart describes above. Still, I don't like the question much! What is the source?
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by durgesh79 » Wed Jun 18, 2008 9:08 pm
Stuart Kovinsky wrote: Here's a good rule for CR on test day: the more work you have to do to justify an answer choice, the less likely it is that the choice is correct.

An adjunct rule: if you read a choice and think "that would be a good answer IF xxx were true", and you don't know 100% that xxx is true, it's a bad answer!
.
Great tips Stuart !!!! Thanks...

And i also dont think that this is a good GMAT problem...... Source please...

Infact whenever i take more than 5 minutes in solving any CR problem, i start thinking that this is not a good GMAT problem ..... 8) :lol:

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by chidcguy » Wed Jun 18, 2008 9:22 pm
On first look, I could eliminate every choice except C. As Ian pointed out C does not do full justice as it says some people think society is the problem. Had it been Most people today think society is the problem, it would have been a better choice.

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by loki.gmat » Wed Jun 18, 2008 10:26 pm
i think the only problem with C is the word "some".
but C is still the best answer compared to others.
hence IMO C.


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Re: The Greek tragedy

by Ian Stewart » Thu Jun 19, 2008 4:38 am
g_beatthegmat wrote:reviving an old thread, which deviated from the question(https://www.beatthegmat.com/cr-doubt-t4435.html), again here -

Greek tragedy, one of the enduring pillars of our belief system, dramatized the concept that the misfortune a person suffers is not an accident, but rather a logical outcome of flaws in that person's nature; the misfortune is thus that person's "fault." Nonetheless, today the public broadly supports bankruptcy protection, family welfare and other "social safety net" programs that shield the destitute in the face of their hardships, at taxpayer expense.

Which of the following, if true, would best resolve the paradox in the statements above?

A. The ancient Greeks had few, if any, such social safety net programs in their society.

B. The majority of the public is more familiar with the works of Shakespeare than those of Greek tragedy.

C. Some people insist that society, not the individual, is to blame for most accidents.

D. Many people in financial difficulties feel too ashamed to declare bankruptcy or to take advantage of other social safety net programs.

E. The religions practiced by most people today strongly encourage people to contribute to charities that assist innocent people injured in natural disasters, such as hurricanes.
C is not correct, and not only because it only mentions 'some'. The question is about a paradox, so we should first identify the paradox. The paradox is not 'we feel differently from the ancient Greeks'. That would not be paradoxical. We are asked in the question to assume that Greek tragedy is "one of the enduring pillars of our belief system." This is the fact that forms the basis of the paradox: we feel the same way as the ancient Greeks. That is, the question tells us the following are 'facts':

-we believe that people are to blame for what befalls them;
-yet, we still offer support to these people.

That's the paradox. E helps to resolve this: according to Greek tragedians, victims of natural disasters would be to blame for their misfortune. Still, we support them, even though we may think they're to blame.

Of course, many would debate the 'facts' presented in this and other critical reasoning questions, but that's not the purpose of CR on the GMAT. Whether we agree with the 'facts' or not, we are being asked to assume they are true.
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by codesnooker » Thu Jun 19, 2008 5:29 am
If the fight is to go with either (C) or (E), as other options do not sound well, I guess I would hit (C).

Why not (E)?

(E) states that priests/monks/.... want us to contribute for the people who are punished by natural disaster. So, though if true, it means only those people will get the help who deserve (as per their 'karma') it. This is same as associated thought with Greek Tragedy. It doesn't stated that all the suffered people will get whether the equal help irrespective of their 'Karma' ?

So, in my opinion it both weaken/strengthen the thought associated with Greek Tragedy. Hence neutralize the statement.


Why (C)?

However, choice (C) though it stated "Some People" but tries to state the paradox. It clearly states the thought of "some people" against the thinking of Greeks. So I guess, unlikely this is the best choice that we have. However, if we remove "some" from (C), then it clearly states the paradox.

My just 2 cents...

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by Ian Stewart » Thu Jun 19, 2008 3:36 pm
Well, because there was so much support for answer C above, I googled the question, and found this:

www.manhattangmat.com/forums/greek-trag ... -t477.html

and while I think their solution misses the mark, logically speaking (they make an unwarranted assumption), the "correct" answer is indeed E. I agree completely with durgesh that this question is not like what you'd see on a real GMAT. And of course it isn't a real GMAT question.

I do, however, think it is useful to notice why C cannot be correct: knowing what 'some people' think doesn't help to explain the 'broad public support' in the question- it doesn't tell you what 'most people' think. This distinction comes up in various ways in many CR questions, and understanding this lets you easily rule out many wrong answers on CR questions.
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by john1234 » Thu Jun 19, 2008 4:03 pm
Ian,
I am not sure you are correct.This question is from old GMAT.The 1000 RC stuff.

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by g_beatthegmat » Fri Jun 20, 2008 1:53 am
Let's call the greeks to explain this paradox :D

Good discussion though. While C looks tempting, I'm all for (E) because of the same reasons as Ian's. I think even if such questions do appear in the GMAT, they would most likely be the "experimental questions", not the real ones though.

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by lvincy » Fri Jun 20, 2008 9:29 am
I will vote for E.

Greek belief is individual is responsible for faults and logical outcome of flaws in that person's nature
But today's belief is individual should also contribute for natural tragedies which are not man made or outcome of flaws in that person nature


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by agent47 » Tue Jun 24, 2008 9:01 pm
It took me around 8 minutes to come to conclusion that C is the best answer !

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by niraj_a » Wed Jun 25, 2008 5:26 am
i like E

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by khanshainur » Wed May 11, 2016 2:37 am
It seems to me that the right answer is E