weaken

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weaken

by mrinal2100 » Tue Mar 27, 2012 4:56 am
Lead water main pipes deliver water to homes and businesses all over the city of Redmond. Because of health concerns related to lead, specially trained workers are required to repair the water main pipes, and without repairs, the water main pipes would eventually cease to deliver water effectively. Therefore, taxpayers in the city of Redmond must continue to provide funds to train workers to repair lead-containing materials safely.

Which of the following, if true, would most seriously weaken the argument above?

a)When water main pipes cease to function effectively, they can be left in place without raising health concerns.
b)Although lead water main pipes are a necessary part of the delivery of water in Redmond, some residents also obtain a portion of their water from wells.
c)In response to public demands, the Redmond city council has cut funding for the training of repair workers and increased spending on the city's mass transit system.
d)Repair of water main pipes requires workers to spend long periods of time underground, which increases the expense of training these workers.
e)The development of a safe and durable material for pipes has made repairing lead water main pipes more costly and less practical than replacing them.

e

i wanted to know why c is wrong.
Source: — Critical Reasoning |

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by GMAT Kolaveri » Tue Mar 27, 2012 5:56 am
mrinal2100 wrote:Lead water main pipes deliver water to homes and businesses all over the city of Redmond. Because of health concerns related to lead, specially trained workers are required to repair the water main pipes, and without repairs, the water main pipes would eventually cease to deliver water effectively. Therefore, taxpayers in the city of Redmond must continue to provide funds to train workers to repair lead-containing materials safely.

Which of the following, if true, would most seriously weaken the argument above?

a)When water main pipes cease to function effectively, they can be left in place without raising health concerns.
b)Although lead water main pipes are a necessary part of the delivery of water in Redmond, some residents also obtain a portion of their water from wells.
c)In response to public demands, the Redmond city council has cut funding for the training of repair workers and increased spending on the city's mass transit system.
d)Repair of water main pipes requires workers to spend long periods of time underground, which increases the expense of training these workers.
e)The development of a safe and durable material for pipes has made repairing lead water main pipes more costly and less practical than replacing them.

e

i wanted to know why c is wrong.
Conclusion is marked above.
Before jumping into the AOs, we need to paraphrase our ans. This will save time on finding the correct one and eliminating other options.
My paraphrased ans: there could be some other method by which they could treat the water after receiving or there could be some other solution to the given issue SO THAT They do not continue to pay.

E is the correct option.

Why is C wrong? C is not related to the conclusion. Does not say anything about people continuing to pay or not continuing to pay.
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by scholardream » Tue Mar 27, 2012 9:06 am
Plz comment on my approach:
Read question first: weaken the arguement
Premise: lead water main pipes deliver water. Specially trained workers are required to repair the water main pipes due to health concerns.
Conclusion: taxpayers must continue to provide fund to train workers -> my expected answer: taxpayers don't need to provide fund to train workers.
(E) The use of lead pipes is no longer important and will cease to exist -> no need to train workers. -> correct answer.
(C) Redmond city cut funding to train repair workers -> no more specialized workers to fix the lead pipes which leads to health concern. The concern of this question is not solved. And additional information on city's mass transit system is not attach or support the conclusion.
Hope my explain help you a little bit

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by mrinal2100 » Wed Mar 28, 2012 12:37 am
in C also they are not continuing to pay the money to repair the pipe

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by agarwalmanoj2000 » Wed Mar 28, 2012 1:52 am
mrinal2100 wrote:in C also they are not continuing to pay the money to repair the pipe
Yes as per option C taxpayers are not paying the money to repair the pipe, but we have to find a reason for taxpayer for not providing funds to train workers.

Tax payers cannot use the reason that city council has cut the funding to train workers for not providing the funds to train workers. Funding cut may be temporary or because of urgent need of funds in the mass transit system or for some other reason.

Tax payers can surely use the reason given in option e for not providing the funds to train workers i.e. The development of a safe and durable material for pipes has made repairing lead water main pipes more costly and less practical than replacing them.

HTH