Critical Reasoning

Private industry is trying to attract skilled research scientists by offering them high salaries. As a result, most research scientists employed in private industry now earn 50 percent more than do comparably skilled research scientists employed by the government. So, unless government-employed research scientists are motivated more by a sense of public duty than by their own interests, the government is likely to lose its most skilled research scientists to private industry, since none of these scientists would have problems finding private sector
jobs.

Which one of the following is an assumption on which the argument depends?
(A) Government research scientists are less likely to receive acknowledgment for their research contributions than are research scientists in the private sector.
(B) None of the research scientists currently employed by the government earns more than
the highest-paid researchers employed in the private sector.
(C) The government does not employ as many research scientists who are highly skilled as does any large company in the private sector which employs research scientists.
(D) The government does not provide its research scientists with unusually good working
conditions or fringe benefits that more than compensate for the lower salaries they receive.
(E) Research scientists employed in the private sector generally work longer hours than do researchers employed by the government.

[spoiler]OA D. One of the explanations refers to "NECESSARY ASSUMPTION" (https://www.beatthegmat.com/lsat-set-tes ... 48738.html). Whether the concept of NECESSARY AND SUFFICIENT ASSUMPTIONS is applicable to GMAT? If yes, how does it work (it would be highly appreciated if you provide GMAT examples with different types of assumptions). Thank you in advance[/spoiler]

Lets look at the conclusion :-
It basically says, there are absolutely no motivating factors ( pay attention to the word "UNLESS") other than money to hold Govt employees back.

Answer D reinforces or helps that conclusion.

Actually, when i read the stimulus, i was looking out for an answer that would talk about money being the sole motivator, came across D.

Thank You

kvitkod wrote:
[spoiler]OA D. One of the explanations refers to "NECESSARY ASSUMPTION" (https://www.beatthegmat.com/lsat-set-tes ... 48738.html). Whether the concept of NECESSARY AND SUFFICIENT ASSUMPTIONS is applicable to GMAT? If yes, how does it work (it would be highly appreciated if you provide GMAT examples with different types of assumptions). Thank you in advance[/spoiler]

Hi kvitkod,

Let's consider an example. Here is a sample argument:

"The average 40 year-old North American male will have watched one million TV commercials in his or her lifetime. We may safely conclude, therefore, that the TV commercial has influenced North American habits of thought."

Now, here are two statements:

I Anything people are exposed to ingreat quantity will influence habits of thought.

II Certain forms of communication to which certain people are subjected will affect their habits of thought.

The first statement is a sufficient assumption. If it were true that ANYTHING in great quantity will influence thought, then since the TV commercial counts as "anything," if we plugged this into the argument, then the conclusion certainly follows. But it is not necessary--the argument does not necessarily fall apart without this statement. His argument does not NEED the assumption that ANYTHING in great quantity will influence habits of thought. (This is why extreme is usually wrong in necessary assumption but not in sufficient assumption questions.)

The second statement is a necessary assumption. He HAS to assume that certain (ie, some = at least one) forms of communication (TV commercials among them) has the ability to influence habits of thought. If he did not assume this--if we to were to take it away (ie, deny it)--then the argument falls apart! But it is not sufficient. If we plugged it in, the conclusion does not for sure follow because we don't know if TV commercials count as "certain forms".

Note that the above text is an excerpt from a post I made in an earlier thread: https://www.beatthegmat.com/verdland-t48086.html#203040

Note I make several posts in that thread; the text above is excerpted from my third post.

Finally, but importantly:

On the GMAT, necessary assumptions are FAR more prevalent than sufficient assumption questions.

Hope that helped!

Testluv, thank you for great explanation (including excellent reference)!

How we can identify sufficient assumption (to treat it in other way)? Could you provide CR examples with sufficient assumption?

Dmitry

IMO D .

Awesome explanation Testluv , i didn't analyse the question in so much detail .

kvitkod wrote:Testluv, thank you for great explanation (including excellent reference)!

How we can identify sufficient assumption (to treat it in other way)? Could you provide CR examples with sufficient assumption?

Dmitry

Hi Dmitry,

I'll give you a real easy way to tell whether you are dealing with a necessary or sufficient assumption question:

Once you know it's an assumption question, if you see "if" in the question stem, then it is a sufficient assumption question. If you don't see "if," then it is a necessary assumption question.

An example of a sufficient assumption question from OG11 is Q63 (of the CR section of course).

I should also reiterate that necessary assumption questions are much more common than sufficient assumption questions.