One of the most ---please post your time

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atulmangal: Legendary Member; Posts: 1112; Joined: Sat Feb 26, 2011 11:16 amFollowed by: 49 members; Thanked: 77 times

by atulmangal » Mon Apr 11, 2011 8:42 am

One of the most vexing problems in historiography is dating an event when the usual sources offer conflicting chronologies of the event. Historians should attempt to minimize the number of competing sources, perhaps by eliminating the less credible ones. Once this is achieved and several sources are left, as often happens, historians may try, though on occasion unsuccessfully, to determine independently of the usual sources which date is more likely to be right.
Which one of the following inferences is most strongly supported by the information above?

A. We have no plausible chronology of most of the events for which attempts have been made by historians to determine the right date.
B. Some of the events for which there are conflicting chronologies and for which attempts have been made by historians to determine the right date cannot be dated reliably by historians.
C. Attaching a reliable date to any event requires determining which of several conflicting chronologies is most likely to be true.
D. Determining independently of the usual sources which of several conflicting chronologies is more likely to be right is an ineffective way of dating events.
E. The soundest approach to dating an event for which the usual sources give conflicting chronologies is to undermine the credibility of as many of these sources as possible.

Guys please post the time too..

Source: Beat The GMAT — Critical Reasoning | Mon Apr 11, 2011 8:42 am

Asher: Junior | Next Rank: 30 Posts; Posts: 27; Joined: Wed Apr 06, 2011 7:58 am

by Asher » Mon Apr 11, 2011 9:13 am

IMO C

Time - 2.30 mins[/spoiler]

Target2009: Legendary Member; Posts: 574; Joined: Sat Oct 31, 2009 1:47 pmFollowed by: 5 members; Location: USA; Thanked: 29 times

by Target2009 » Mon Apr 11, 2011 10:48 am

IMO - B (2:02 Min.)

Regards
Abhishek
------------------------------
MasterGmat Student

HSPA: Legendary Member; Posts: 1101; Joined: Fri Jan 28, 2011 7:26 amFollowed by: 13 members; Thanked: 47 times; GMAT Score:640

by HSPA » Mon Apr 11, 2011 6:17 pm

Keyword : occasionally unsucessful

A) has "more" ,I forgot but a Knewton tutor explained the use of more very well.
B) some -- this word sounds good..

IMO B in 3min

First take: 640 (50M, 27V) - RC needs 300% improvement
Second take: coming soon..
Regards,
HSPA.

Trader4Life: Newbie | Next Rank: 10 Posts; Posts: 2; Joined: Tue Oct 06, 2009 9:35 pm

by Trader4Life » Mon Apr 11, 2011 6:42 pm

IMO, B, took me 3:53 min.

was struggling between B and C...eventually eliminated C because of the "conflicting chronologies"

rohu27: Legendary Member; Posts: 586; Joined: Tue Jan 19, 2010 4:38 amFollowed by: 5 members; Thanked: 31 times; GMAT Score:730

by rohu27 » Mon Apr 11, 2011 7:53 pm

option B 1.45 min

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Asher: Junior | Next Rank: 30 Posts; Posts: 27; Joined: Wed Apr 06, 2011 7:58 am

by Asher » Mon Apr 11, 2011 9:28 pm

Could someone please explain why the ans. is B.

I'm confused.

Thanks in advance.

rohu27: Legendary Member; Posts: 586; Joined: Tue Jan 19, 2010 4:38 amFollowed by: 5 members; Thanked: 31 times; GMAT Score:730

by rohu27 » Mon Apr 11, 2011 9:59 pm

Asher wrote:Could someone please explain why the ans. is B.

I'm confused.

Thanks in advance.

let me try if i can convince you with my reply.
remember its an inference question. so answer MUST be present in the stimulus. no assumptions allowed.

A-does the stimuus really talk abt historians who attempted to analyse the chrolonoly. it only suggests that they shud do it.

C-read the first line, we only want events for which we have conflicting evidence. answer choice C has "any event"

D-though the passage says historians may fail occassionally it is too strong an option to say its ineffective.

E-its not the best(soundest) approach as the passage itself points out flaws. also the point is not to undermine credibility of as many as possible, just remove the sources which are less credible, thts it. not to purposefully remove them.

now B-Some of the events for which there are conflicting chronologies and for which attempts have been made by historians to determine the right date cannot be dated reliably by historians - the passage clearly sates once the historians attempt to eliminate less credible sources they may still be unsuccesfull at times to determine which date is right.
(historians may try, though on occasion unsuccessfully, to determine independently of the usual sources which date is more likely to be right.)

it was between B and C for me. but C has a subtle word there. any event. that makes it out of contention.

hope tht helps.

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Testluv: GMAT Instructor; Posts: 1302; Joined: Mon Oct 19, 2009 2:13 pmFollowed by: 164 members; Location: Toronto; Thanked: 539 times; GMAT Score:800

by Testluv » Tue Apr 12, 2011 12:48 am

This:

rohu27 wrote:
now B-Some of the events for which there are conflicting chronologies and for which attempts have been made by historians to determine the right date cannot be dated reliably by historians - the passage clearly sates once the historians attempt to eliminate less credible sources they may still be unsuccesfull at times to determine which date is right.
(historians may try, though on occasion unsuccessfully, to determine independently of the usual sources which date is more likely to be right.)

is a wonderful explanation for why (B) is the supported inference.

And this:

B) some -- this word sounds good.

is great thinking, and, in fact, is the basis for a solid tip in inference questions:

An inference is something that must be true. But any extreme statement is difficult to prove. That's why one should avoid strongly worded (or "extreme") answer choices in inference. A corollary of this is that one should be partial to weakly worded or tentative answer choices in inference questions: a lot of right answers to inference questions contain language such as:

"not necessarily"
"generally"
"at least"
or, as here, "some."

Kaplan Teacher in Toronto

AIM GMAT: Legendary Member; Posts: 857; Joined: Wed Aug 25, 2010 1:36 amFollowed by: 15 members; Thanked: 56 times

by AIM GMAT » Tue Apr 12, 2011 2:29 am

IMO B .

1:20 .

Is this from POwerscore CR bible ?

Thanks & Regards,
AIM GMAT

rahul_tgsp: Senior | Next Rank: 100 Posts; Posts: 51; Joined: Wed Feb 17, 2010 2:00 am; Thanked: 2 times

by rahul_tgsp » Tue Apr 12, 2011 7:58 am

IMO B
53 secs

atulmangal: Legendary Member; Posts: 1112; Joined: Sat Feb 26, 2011 11:16 amFollowed by: 49 members; Thanked: 77 times

by atulmangal » Tue Apr 12, 2011 8:07 am

OA is B guys

Asher: Junior | Next Rank: 30 Posts; Posts: 27; Joined: Wed Apr 06, 2011 7:58 am

by Asher » Wed Apr 13, 2011 9:18 pm

rohu27 wrote:
Asher wrote:Could someone please explain why the ans. is B.

I'm confused.

Thanks in advance.
let me try if i can convince you with my reply.
remember its an inference question. so answer MUST be present in the stimulus. no assumptions allowed.

A-does the stimuus really talk abt historians who attempted to analyse the chrolonoly. it only suggests that they shud do it.

C-read the first line, we only want events for which we have conflicting evidence. answer choice C has "any event"

D-though the passage says historians may fail occassionally it is too strong an option to say its ineffective.

E-its not the best(soundest) approach as the passage itself points out flaws. also the point is not to undermine credibility of as many as possible, just remove the sources which are less credible, thts it. not to purposefully remove them.

now B-Some of the events for which there are conflicting chronologies and for which attempts have been made by historians to determine the right date cannot be dated reliably by historians - the passage clearly sates once the historians attempt to eliminate less credible sources they may still be unsuccesfull at times to determine which date is right.
(historians may try, though on occasion unsuccessfully, to determine independently of the usual sources which date is more likely to be right.)

it was between B and C for me. but C has a subtle word there. any event. that makes it out of contention.

hope tht helps.

Thanks for the explanation, rohu27.

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