Critical Reasoning

I found the below practice question online and determined that the answer was E, however, the answer key claims the correct answer is D. There is no explanation for the answer so I'm confuses. Is the key wrong? If it's correct, can someone explain why the answer is D. Thanks!


My neighbor's dogs bark and howl every time their owner lets them outside. My CPA told me that dogs tend to bark and howl when they see birds resting in the top branches of their favorite trees. I personally believe they bark and howl because they enjoy disrupting my meditations.
Which of the following can be inferred from the preceding passage?

A. The dogs must be abused by their owners.
B. The dogs' owners do not care how they are viewed by their neighbors.
C. There are many pedestrians who walk by this neighbor's house, and the dogs are starving for attention.
D. The dogs enjoy being outside.
E. The dogs will bark and howl at 3 a.m. if they are outside at that time.

I agree with E.

The only way D can be inferred is if there is some data that points to the fact that barking and howling are signs of Enjoyment for dogs. This we are not allowed to assume. So D makes no sense at all.

My neighbor's dogs bark and howl every time their owner lets them outside. My CPA told me that dogs tend to bark and howl when they see birds resting in the top branches of their favorite trees. I personally believe they bark and howl because they enjoy disrupting my meditations.
Which of the following can be inferred from the preceding passage?
A. The dogs must be abused by their owners.
B. The dogs' owners do not care how they are viewed by their neighbors.
C. There are many pedestrians who walk by this neighbor's house, and the dogs are starving for attention.
D. The dogs enjoy being outside.
E. The dogs will bark and howl at 3 a.m. if they are outside at that time.
Opinion:
1) time at which I meditate = time at which the dogs are kept outside 2) Dogs wants to catch birds on favourite tress
a) Passage never said this
b) keep it open
c) Pedestrians were never mentioned in passage.. Out of scope
d) Dogs have favourite trees... keep it open
e) 3 a.m... no one meditates at this time... ( d>b for me )

I dont think any answer is correct here and its a poorly constructed question. What does the passage say?

1. The dogs bark when they are let outside
2. The CPA believes its becayse they bark at birds in the trees
3. The neighbor thinks its because the dogs enjoy annoying him

A,B,and C are easily eliminated

For D to be correct you have to make the assumption that neither the CPA is right nor is the neighbor right and they bark simply because they are happy to be outside. That does not have to be true. Maybe they bark because they have to go to the bathroom or because they see something outside besides a bird in a tree.

For E to be correct we have to assume that "lets them outside" is the same as "outside". If they bark when the owner lets them out there is no guarantee that they are barking after they are outside for some time. For example if the owner lets them out at 10PM we know they will bark from the passage. But will they still be barking at 3AM? Not necessarily. They might only bark when they are let out the door and then they get quiet.

So I cant see how anyone can choose E over D or D over E. Both require major assumptions to be made.

dumpli wrote:I found the below practice question online and determined that the answer was E, however, the answer key claims the correct answer is D. There is no explanation for the answer so I'm confuses. Is the key wrong? If it's correct, can someone explain why the answer is D. Thanks!


My neighbor's dogs bark and howl every time their owner lets them outside. My CPA told me that dogs tend to bark and howl when they see birds resting in the top branches of their favorite trees. I personally believe they bark and howl because they enjoy disrupting my meditations.
Which of the following can be inferred from the preceding passage?

A. The dogs must be abused by their owners.
B. The dogs' owners do not care how they are viewed by their neighbors.
C. There are many pedestrians who walk by this neighbor's house, and the dogs are starving for attention.
D. The dogs enjoy being outside.
E. The dogs will bark and howl at 3 a.m. if they are outside at that time.

1st of all i would call it a very bad question as the ans choices are quite vague (in terms of GMAT the inferences need to be quite focused on the premises...either the premises are paraphrased or combined)...however many of the ans choices have out of scope concepts which the GMAT doesnt' entertain
now looking at the ans choices
A- wrong: abuse is not mentioned in the stimulus
B- dogs' owner's reason or state of thinking isn't related to the stimulus
C- wrong: dogs' need for attention isn't suggested n neither are pedestrians part of the situation
E- the timing the dogs are let out is not mentioned and is unrelated concept
D- partially paraphrase the ans

the entire concept works as if others don't fit so one has to be correct....my suggestion would be to focus more on OG or real LSAT past papers as both have tested sources of questions which aren't dubious like many of other sources which tend to follow a particular state of mind ,which derides GMAT's real purpose of spontaneous thinking

rahul_tgsp wrote:

dumpli wrote:I found the below practice question online and determined that the answer was E, however, the answer key claims the correct answer is D. There is no explanation for the answer so I'm confuses. Is the key wrong? If it's correct, can someone explain why the answer is D. Thanks!


My neighbor's dogs bark and howl every time their owner lets them outside. My CPA told me that dogs tend to bark and howl when they see birds resting in the top branches of their favorite trees. I personally believe they bark and howl because they enjoy disrupting my meditations.
Which of the following can be inferred from the preceding passage?

A. The dogs must be abused by their owners.
B. The dogs' owners do not care how they are viewed by their neighbors.
C. There are many pedestrians who walk by this neighbor's house, and the dogs are starving for attention.
D. The dogs enjoy being outside.
E. The dogs will bark and howl at 3 a.m. if they are outside at that time.

1st of all i would call it a very bad question as the ans choices are quite vague (in terms of GMAT the inferences need to be quite focused on the premises...either the premises are paraphrased or combined)...however many of the ans choices have out of scope concepts which the GMAT doesnt' entertain
now looking at the ans choices
A- wrong: abuse is not mentioned in the stimulus
B- dogs' owner's reason or state of thinking isn't related to the stimulus
C- wrong: dogs' need for attention isn't suggested n neither are pedestrians part of the situation
E- the timing the dogs are let out is not mentioned and is unrelated concept
D- partially paraphrase the ans

the entire concept works as if others don't fit so one has to be correct....my suggestion would be to focus more on OG or real LSAT past papers as both have tested sources of questions which aren't dubious like many of other sources which tend to follow a particular state of mind ,which derides GMAT's real purpose of spontaneous thinking

I agree with Fitzerald23

The question poorly constructed and i firmly believe none of the answer choice is correct.

My neighbor's dogs bark and howl every time their owner lets them outside

is the key to the Answer to this CR

fitzgerald23 and rahul are right!

I remembered seeing this question before. It has no correct answer.

Choices D and E are closer but as stated above each require major assumptions and nothing here is "must be true."

Yes this question doesn't look like a gmat's one ....

This questions actually made me laugh out loud. What a joke. They can't be serious. As if this would ever show up on the GMAT. You can easily see loaded assumptions in every answer. For instance, if the answer is that the dogs enjoy being outside, can't we clearly negate the assumption and see that the arguement still holds up. I mean, who knows, maybe the dogs hate to be put outside. How the heck would we know! And secondly, WHO CARES. Please refrain from putting questions like this out there. They are simply misleading.

IMO D it require less assumption than E