Critical Reasoning

International Policy Adviser: People over the age of 65 are underrepresented in the government of Country X. Because the government sets the country's policy priorities and passes new laws, the underrepresentation of people over the age of 65 results in a significant lack of consideration for issues important to this age group, such as pensions, age-related welfare, and employment discrimination; only an increase in the number of government officials will solve the problem.

Which of the following best describes an assumption implicit to the international policy adviser's argument?

1.A significant increase in the size of Country X's government would be required in order to increase the representation of people over the age of 65 in the government.
2.A significant increase in the representation of people over the age of 65 in Country X's government would result in an increase in the consideration for issues affecting people in this age group.
3.A significant increase in funding toward educating the government about issues affecting people over age 65 would result in more serious consideration for issues affecting people in this age group.
4.A significant increase in funding for adult education targeted to people over age 65 would result in an increase in the number of such people in Country X's government.
5.A significant increase in the representation of people over the age of 65 in Country X's government would have to precede any increase in the number of high-ranking government officials who are over the age of 65.

OA:2.

What's wrong with 1 ?

dhonu121 wrote:International Policy Adviser: People over the age of 65 are underrepresented in the government of Country X. Because the government sets the country's policy priorities and passes new laws, the underrepresentation of people over the age of 65 results in a significant lack of consideration for issues important to this age group, such as pensions, age-related welfare, and employment discrimination; only an increase in the number of government officials will solve the problem.

Which of the following best describes an assumption implicit to the international policy adviser's argument?

1.A significant increase in the size of Country X's government would be required in order to increase the representation of people over the age of 65 in the government.
2.A significant increase in the representation of people over the age of 65 in Country X's government would result in an increase in the consideration for issues affecting people in this age group.

Premise - There is lack of consideration of certain issues because of lack of representation of people of age over 65
Conclusion - The number of officials will solve this problem

1. Just restates the conclusion
2. It relates premise and conclusion. It's like the link between 2 statements.
Hence the assumption

How is 1 restating the conclusion ?
Both 1 and 2 are assumption made in the argument.
Its difficult to chose one over the other.

More 65 + aged people in the govt will solve the problems faced by the underrepresented people.

Assumption is you can say only aged people will know abt their pblms and pass laws to resolve them.

A - Significant increase in the size of Country X's govt is necessary - not necessary few people might be suffice. Say there are 45% of people aged 65+ and all we need is 5% more. That's not a significant increase.
B - more direct and general assumption - significant increase in representation of ppl over 65 is suffice to solve the problem - being underrepresented, we need a significant increase to match the over represented people.

Moreover negating B would result weaken the argument. Other statements are irrelevant.

Hi!

For assumption questions, start by deconstructing the argument: identify the author's conclusion and summarize the evidence.

Conclusion: the ONLY solution is to increase the number of government officials.

Evidence: old folk are underrepresented in the government, which sets policy and passes laws, leading to a lack of consideration for old folk issues.

Now we identify the author's assumption: the missing but necessary information to support the conclusion. Remember - an assumption is something that MUST BE TRUE in order for the conclusion to follow from the evidence.

To get through CR questions quickly, it's extremely useful to recognize the common patterns that occur. Here we have the author making a recommendation - and not just a "you should do this" proposal, but a "this is the ONLY possibly solution" one.

When an author claims that only one solution will work, she must be assuming that there are no other possible remedies for the problem.

Prediction 1: an answer that states that no other solution will work.

When an author makes a recommendation, she must be assuming that the plan is practical: i.e. that there are no obstacles to the proposal working and that the goal will be achieved.

Prediction 2: an answer that removes an obstacle to the proposal working.

Now, here's the problem with this question - Choice (1) matches our first prediction and choice (2) matches our second prediction.

Does this mean that we've made a mistake? NO - this means that the question is flawed! On the actual GMAT you will NEVER have to choose between the "best" and "second best" choices. There will always be 1 correct answer and 4 demonstrably wrong ones.

What's the source?

dhonu121 wrote:International Policy Adviser: People over the age of 65 are underrepresented in the government of Country X. Because the government sets the country's policy priorities and passes new laws, the underrepresentation of people over the age of 65 results in a significant lack of consideration for issues important to this age group, such as pensions, age-related welfare, and employment discrimination; only an increase in the number of government officials will solve the problem.

Which of the following best describes an assumption implicit to the international policy adviser's argument?

1.A significant increase in the size of Country X's government would be required in order to increase the representation of people over the age of 65 in the government.
2.A significant increase in the representation of people over the age of 65 in Country X's government would result in an increase in the consideration for issues affecting people in this age group.
3.A significant increase in funding toward educating the government about issues affecting people over age 65 would result in more serious consideration for issues affecting people in this age group.
4.A significant increase in funding for adult education targeted to people over age 65 would result in an increase in the number of such people in Country X's government.
5.A significant increase in the representation of people over the age of 65 in Country X's government would have to precede any increase in the number of high-ranking government officials who are over the age of 65.

OA:2.

What's wrong with 1 ?

What's the source?

Hi Stuart,
The source is gmatclub tests.

dhonu121 wrote:International Policy Adviser: People over the age of 65 are underrepresented in the government of Country X. Because the government sets the country's policy priorities and passes new laws, the underrepresentation of people over the age of 65 results in a significant lack of consideration for issues important to this age group, such as pensions, age-related welfare, and employment discrimination; only an increase in the number of government officials will solve the problem.

Which of the following best describes an assumption implicit to the international policy adviser's argument?

1.A significant increase in the size of Country X's government would be required in order to increase the representation of people over the age of 65 in the government.
2.A significant increase in the representation of people over the age of 65 in Country X's government would result in an increase in the consideration for issues affecting people in this age group.
3.A significant increase in funding toward educating the government about issues affecting people over age 65 would result in more serious consideration for issues affecting people in this age group.
4.A significant increase in funding for adult education targeted to people over age 65 would result in an increase in the number of such people in Country X's government.
5.A significant increase in the representation of people over the age of 65 in Country X's government would have to precede any increase in the number of high-ranking government officials who are over the age of 65.

OA:2.

What's wrong with 1 ?

Conclusion here is "only an increase in the number of government officials will solve the problem.
" and to support this Author states - "the underrepresentation of people over the age of 65 results in a significant lack of consideration for issues important to this age group".

Premise + Assumption = Conclusion

Now if we choose 1 with the premise, we can conclude that the Underrepresentation would be solved but we still cannot say anything about whether the important issues would be considered or not which Author concludes. So this option is out.

Now if we choose 2nd

(Due to underrepresentation the important issues were not considered)[premise] +(Significant incr in ppl over 65 would would result in an increase in the consideration for issues)[Assumption] = increase in no. of ppl will solve the issue [Conclusion].

Hope this answers your query.