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Chairman of a corporation-tricky

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Chairman of a corporation-tricky

by hamxa » Thu Jan 14, 2010 11:49 pm
Below is an excerpt from a letter that was sent by the chairman of a corporation to the stockholders.
A number of charges have been raised against me, some serious, some trivial. Individuals seeking to control the corporation for their own purposes have demanded my resignation. Remember that no court of law in any state has found me guilty of any criminal offense whatsoever. In the American tradition, as you know, an individual is considered innocent until proven guilty. Furthermore, as the corporation's unbroken six-year record of growth will show, my conduct of my official duties as chairman has only helped enhance the success of the corporation, and so benefited every stockholder.
Which of the following can be properly inferred from the excerpt?
(A) The chairman believes that all those who have demanded his resignation are motivated by desire to control the corporation for their own purposes.
(B) Any misdeeds that the chairman may have committed were motivated by his desire to enhance the success of the corporation.
(C) The chairman is innocent of any criminal offense.
(D) The corporation has expanded steadily over the past six years.
(E) Any legal proceedings against the chairman have resulted in his acquittal.


please share your answer & reasons...
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by gmatmachoman » Thu Jan 14, 2010 11:59 pm
IMO A
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by hamxa » Fri Jan 15, 2010 12:00 am
I was stuck between 2.
I will share the OA after a few posts, for better discussion !
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by gmatmachoman » Fri Jan 15, 2010 12:02 am
hamxa wrote:I was stuck between 2.
I will share the OA after a few posts, for better discussion !
Did u mean over [spoiler]A & D[/spoiler]

D wont be a right option.
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by hamxa » Fri Jan 15, 2010 12:03 am
yes thats right...
Can you explain with reasons please
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by gmatmachoman » Fri Jan 15, 2010 12:08 am
hamxa wrote:yes thats right...
Can you explain with reasons please
I s the OA is A??

Furthermore, as the corporation's unbroken six-year record of growth...this could mean anything between growth in revenues or on profits or addition of new customers. This opens up the gap that expansion( as noted in D) cannot be mapped directly with six year record growth.
So that makes D as NOT to be a inference.

Whereas A just tries to rephrase the facts stated by the chairman. In most of the cases Inference type of questions HAS to follow directly from the stimulus stated.
Last edited by gmatmachoman on Fri Jan 15, 2010 12:14 am, edited 1 time in total.
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by hamxa » Fri Jan 15, 2010 12:11 am
OA is D

But please present some logical reason how that can be true,
Also heard that 1000 series has some wrong answers too.... :s
Last edited by hamxa on Fri Jan 15, 2010 12:23 am, edited 1 time in total.
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by hamxa » Fri Jan 15, 2010 12:23 am
The same reasoning I used for eliminating D !!

Does that make 1000 series OA wrong ?
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by Testluv » Fri Jan 15, 2010 12:27 am
What is the source of this question? I'm going to guess that this is a garbage source such as 1000cr. The reason is NONE of the answer choices can be properly inferred.

In inference questions, we are supposed to treat every statement in the passage as necessarily true. But, here, the passage is a letter written by the chairman. And, the question stem does not instruct us to treat the passage as true.

Therefore, from the passage, we can't infer much of anything about what must be true; really, we can only safely infer what the letter-writer believes is true, or what the letter-writer wants us to believe is true. Accordingly, the only answer choice that even has a chance of being correct is choice A (choice A is the only one that discusses what the letter-writer believes).

But even choice A is not without problems. The sentence from the passage that might support choice A is:
Individuals seeking to control the corporation for their own purposes have demanded my resignation.
But choice A reads:
(A) The chairman believes that all those who have demanded his resignation are motivated by desire to control the corporation for their own purposes.
See the problem? We know from the letter that the chairman believes that (some) individuals seeking to control the corporation for their own purposes are demanding the chairman's resignation. From this, we can't infer that the letter-writer believes ALL individuals demanding his resignation seek to control the corporation for their own purposes. (In LSAT talk, choice A is mixing up the sufficient and necessary conditions).

Some people may also be tempted by choice D. From the letter, we know that there was a six-year record of growth. The problem with choice D is that it wants us to infer that this growth has been steady. We certainly can't infer that. While we can safely infer that there was a six-year record of growth (it would be detrimental to the chairman's interests to lie about something that can be so easily confirmed or disconfirmed), that growth may have been erratic rather than steady.

None of the five answer choices can be properly inferred; there is no logically correct answer whatever the OA is. This question is flawed in design, and, with its flaws, it would never be on the actual GMAT. Practicing on these kinds of questions can hurt you more than it helps you.

I would be interested in knowing the source, and the OE if you have it.
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by Testluv » Fri Jan 15, 2010 12:31 am
Ah, so it is from 1000cr then. (I was still typing my post while you guys were exchanging posts).

Yep, just forget about this question; it's bad.
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by gmatmachoman » Fri Jan 15, 2010 12:33 am
Fully agree with U Deepak,

the term "all" ( in Option A)does some sort of damage... and as u rightly said I got confused with the sufficient & necessary condition.....
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by gmatmachoman » Fri Jan 15, 2010 12:36 am
Testluv wrote:Ah, so it is from 1000cr then. (I was still typing my post while you guys were exchanging posts).

Yep, just forget about this question; it's bad.
Poor Guys who framed 1000 CR are getting "nicely banged" by our Guruji Deepak...hahhahah
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by Testluv » Fri Jan 15, 2010 12:38 am
gmatmachoman wrote:Fully agree with U Deepak,

the term "all" ( in Option A)does some sort of damage... and as u rightly said I got confused with the sufficient & necessary condition.....
Hey, don't worry about it! You were under the impression that one of the five choices was correct. As I said, choice A was the only one that even had a chance of being correct!
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by Testluv » Fri Jan 15, 2010 1:15 am
I just wanted to make one thing clear. In inference questions, you should ALWAYS treat the passage as necessarily true.

The reason I deviated from this here is as follows: One of the five answer choices discusses what the chairman "believes". This strongly suggests a distinction between what is true and what the chairman believes to be true.

Accepting this distinction forces us to do something we're never supposed to do in inference questions--not treat the passage as necessarily true.

But rejecting this distinction precludes us from intelligibly distinguishing choice A from the others.

That's why this is a bad question.
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by hamxa » Fri Jan 15, 2010 1:20 am
thanks a lot for the very essential clarifications.

I will 'burn' 1000CR with haste. :)
I am weak in CR and wanted to practice from 1000CR as it has a big bank of questions.

In this scenario, please suggest better sources for CR brute forcing.
I have kaplan premier/advanced, princeton, mgmat CATs and the 3 OGs.

Which one offers the max. no of toughest AND relevant CR practice material ?
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