CR question

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CR question

by psm12se » Tue Feb 05, 2013 7:51 am
It is true of both men and women that those who marry as young adults live longer than those who
never marry. This does not show that marriage causes people to live longer, since, as compared with other people of the same age, young adults who are about to get married have fewer of the unhealthy habits that can cause a person to have a shorter life, most notably smoking and immoderate drinking of alcohol.
Which of the following, if true, most strengthens the argument above?

(A) Marriage tends to cause people to engage less regularly in sports that involve risk of bodily
harm.
(B) A married person who has an unhealthy habit is more likely to give up that habit than a person
with the same habit who is unmarried.
(C) A person who smokes is much more likely than a nonsmoker to marry a person who smokes at
the time of marriage, and the same is true for people who drink alcohol immoderately.
(D) Among people who marry as young adults, most of those who give up an unhealthy habit after
marriage do not resume the habit later in life.
(E) Among people who as young adults neither drink alcohol immoderately nor smoke, those who
never marry live as long as those who marry.
Source: — Critical Reasoning |

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by charu_mahajan » Tue Feb 05, 2013 10:09 am
Conclusion here is - This does not show that marriage causes people to live longer.

To strengthen this we need to focus on - Marriage does not cause people to live longer.

(A) Marriage tends to cause people to engage less regularly in sports that involve risk of bodily
harm. So Marriage is cause of less engagement and hence long life - INCORRECT

(B) A married person who has an unhealthy habit is more likely to give up that habit than a person
with the same habit who is unmarried. Again, marriage leads to long life - INCORRECT

(C) A person who smokes is much more likely than a nonsmoker to marry a person who smokes at
the time of marriage, and the same is true for people who drink alcohol immoderately. - This option is out of scope.

(D) Among people who marry as young adults, most of those who give up an unhealthy habit after
marriage do not resume the habit later in life. People give up unhealthy habit after marriage. Marriage cause long life - INCORRECT

(E) Among people who as young adults neither drink alcohol immoderately nor smoke, those who
never marry live as long as those who marry. Oops !! So unmarried people with good habits live just as long as married people. ONLY Marriage does not lead to long life - CORRECT

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by hemant_rajput » Tue Feb 05, 2013 10:11 am
psm12se wrote:It is true of both men and women that those who marry as young adults live longer than those who
never marry. This does not show that marriage causes people to live longer, since, as compared with other people of the same age, young adults who are about to get married have fewer of the unhealthy habits that can cause a person to have a shorter life, most notably smoking and immoderate drinking of alcohol.
Which of the following, if true, most strengthens the argument above?

(A) Marriage tends to cause people to engage less regularly in sports that involve risk of bodily
harm.
(B) A married person who has an unhealthy habit is more likely to give up that habit than a person
with the same habit who is unmarried.
(C) A person who smokes is much more likely than a nonsmoker to marry a person who smokes at
the time of marriage, and the same is true for people who drink alcohol immoderately.
(D) Among people who marry as young adults, most of those who give up an unhealthy habit after
marriage do not resume the habit later in life.
(E) Among people who as young adults neither drink alcohol immoderately nor smoke, those who
never marry live as long as those who marry.
IMO b.

At first I was confused between B and D, although, I choose B because I think it strengthen the conclusion better than D.

What is OA?
I'm no expert, just trying to work on my skills. If I've made any mistakes please bear with me.

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by tisrar02 » Sun Feb 10, 2013 5:23 pm
I would go with E. Reason is because we want to tackle the idea that married people live longer. Well if a person that does not have bad habits and does not marry, lives as long as a person who is married, that is enough to tackle the prior argument and strengthen the later assumption.

IMO- E--> Source and OA?
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by David@VeritasPrep » Sun Feb 10, 2013 5:45 pm
This is reportedly a GMATPrep question.

The OA is E

tisrar02 and Charu have given very nice explanations.

We want an ALTERNATE CAUSE for married people living longer. E gives us that cause namely that having good habits is the cause and not the married status.
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