CR Weaken

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CR Weaken

by sachindia » Sat Jun 30, 2012 4:05 am
Although the discount stores in Goreville's central shopping district are expected to close within fi ve years as a
result of competition from a SpendLess discount department store that just opened, those locations will not
stay vacant for long. In the fi ve years since the opening of Colson's, a nondiscount department store, a new
store has opened at the location of every store in the shopping district that closed because it could not compete
with Colson's.
Which of the following, if true, most seriously weakens the argument?
(A) Many customers of Colson's are expected to do less shopping there than they did before the SpendLess
store opened.
(B) Increasingly, the stores that have opened in the central shopping district since Colson's opened have been
discount stores.
(C) At present, the central shopping district has as many stores operating in it as it ever had.
(D) Over the course of the next fi ve years, it is expected that Goreville's population will grow at a faster rate
than it has for the past several decades.
(E) Many stores in the central shopping district sell types of merchandise that are not available at either
SpendLess or Colson's.
Regards,
Sach

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by vk_vinayak » Sat Jun 30, 2012 8:31 am
I will go with B. Please post the OA and explanation.
- VK

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by sachindia » Sat Jun 30, 2012 9:00 am
OA is B according to OG.

I didn't understand why B is right. Can somebody please explain me?
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Sach

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by thestartupguy » Sat Jun 30, 2012 11:46 am
sachindia wrote:Although the discount stores in Goreville's central shopping district are expected to close within five years as a
result of competition from a SpendLess discount department store that just opened, those locations will not
stay vacant for long. In the five years since the opening of Colson's, a nondiscount department store, a new
store has opened at the location of every store in the shopping district that closed because it could not compete
with Colson's.
Which of the following, if true, most seriously weakens the argument?
(A) Many customers of Colson's are expected to do less shopping there than they did before the SpendLess
store opened.
(B) Increasingly, the stores that have opened in the central shopping district since Colson's opened have been
discount stores.
(C) At present, the central shopping district has as many stores operating in it as it ever had.
(D) Over the course of the next fi ve years, it is expected that Goreville's population will grow at a faster rate
than it has for the past several decades.
(E) Many stores in the central shopping district sell types of merchandise that are not available at either
SpendLess or Colson's.
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by KapTeacherEli » Sat Jun 30, 2012 6:22 pm
sachindia wrote:Although the discount stores in Goreville's central shopping district are expected to close within five years as a result of competition from a SpendLess discount department store that just opened, those locations will not stay vacant for long. In the five years since the opening of Colson's, a nondiscount department store, a new store has opened at the location of every store in the shopping district that closed because it could not compete with Colson's.
Which of the following, if true, most seriously weakens the argument?
(A) Many customers of Colson's are expected to do less shopping there than they did before the SpendLess
store opened.
(B) Increasingly, the stores that have opened in the central shopping district since Colson's opened have been
discount stores.
(C) At present, the central shopping district has as many stores operating in it as it ever had.
(D) Over the course of the next fi ve years, it is expected that Goreville's population will grow at a faster rate
than it has for the past several decades.
(E) Many stores in the central shopping district sell types of merchandise that are not available at either
SpendLess or Colson's.
Hi sachindia,

This problem is a Weaken problem--clearly indicated by the question stem. That means the argument in the stimulus will rely on some assumed fact, and the correct answer will indicate why that assumption might not be true.

In this problem, the conclusion is buried in the middle of the text: "these locations will not stay vacant for long."

What is the evidence that author uses to make the prediction? Well, even though Spendless is driving shops out of business, when Colson's did the same thing five years ago, all the closed businesses were replaced.

This is a classic GMAT reasoning pattern: representativeness. Whenever the author of a prompt explains that something is true of A and will therefore also be true of B, the assumption that he makes can be phrased as, "A is similar to B," or "A is comparable to B," or "A is representative of B." So in this case, the author of the prompt assumes that what is true of the Colson's opening will be true of the SpendLess opening; in other words, the SpendLess and Colson's are representative.

But there is a catch. SpendLess and Colson's are not similar, because one is a discount store and one is not! That leads us to a prediction for the correct answer: something about SpendLess being a discount store means that predictions based on Colson's are no longer applicable.

That's what (B) gives us. Colson's, a full-priced store, drove all the full-priced stores out of business, but left a hole in the market for discount stores. But if full-priced stores are driven out by Colson's, and the thriftier stores are driven out by SpendLess, what's left to take up the vacant store spaces? It seems very unlikely that the author's prediction will come true in that scenario. Thus, (B) weakens the stimulus and is the correct answer.
Eli Meyer
Kaplan GMAT Teacher
Cambridge, MA
www.kaptest.com/gmat

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by sachindia » Sat Jun 30, 2012 7:35 pm
Thanks a ton ELI.. That was simply amazing. I am trying to understand the patterns in Questions of CR. Not sure which book is good to understand those.
Regards,
Sach

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by KapTeacherEli » Sat Jun 30, 2012 8:15 pm
Kaplan GMAT Premier covers all of the common Critical Reasoning patterns. You can also stop by our blog (blog.kaplangmat.com) and search for critical reasoning to find a number of free, insightful posts on the topic!
Eli Meyer
Kaplan GMAT Teacher
Cambridge, MA
www.kaptest.com/gmat

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by Gaurav 2013-fall » Sun Jul 01, 2012 8:17 am
Got B by POE.
Let me tell you something you already know. The world ain't all sunshine and rainbows. It is a very mean and nasty place and it will beat you to your knees and keep you there permanently if you let it. You, me, or nobody is gonna hit as hard as life. But it ain't how hard you hit; it's about how hard you can get hit, and keep moving forward. How much you can take, and keep moving forward. That's how winning is done. Now, if you know what you're worth, then go out and get what you're worth. But you gotta be willing to take the hit, and not pointing fingers saying you ain't where you are because of him, or her, or anybody. Cowards do that and that ain't you. You're better than that! (Rocky VI)

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by vinodsundaram » Mon Aug 27, 2012 10:27 pm
Great explanation from Eli :)

Assumption : Things that worked for A in the past needs to work B in the future.
the argument falters with B. More stores have opened than closing down.