Is the following argument strong or weak? This is from the PowerScore CR Bible and I am not convinced with the OA. Please help.
Damming the Merv River would provide irrigation for the dry land in its upstream areas; unfortunately, a dam would reduce agricultural productivity in the fertile land downstream by reducing the availability and quality of water there. The productivity loss in the downstream area would be greater than the productivity gain upstream, so building a dam would yield no overall gain in agricultural productivity in the region as a whole.
OA: Strong[/spoiler]
Is this argument strong or weak?
This topic has expert replies
- Jim@StratusPrep
- MBA Admissions Consultant
- Posts: 2279
- Joined: Fri Nov 11, 2011 7:51 am
- Location: New York
- Thanked: 660 times
- Followed by:266 members
- GMAT Score:770
What is your issue with the argument? With a net loss, the argument of no overall gain is true.
GMAT Answers provides a world class adaptive learning platform.
-- Push button course navigation to simplify planning
-- Daily assignments to fit your exam timeline
-- Organized review that is tailored based on your abiility
-- 1,000s of unique GMAT questions
-- 100s of handwritten 'digital flip books' for OG questions
-- 100% Free Trial and less than $20 per month after.
-- Free GMAT Quantitative Review
-- Push button course navigation to simplify planning
-- Daily assignments to fit your exam timeline
-- Organized review that is tailored based on your abiility
-- 1,000s of unique GMAT questions
-- 100s of handwritten 'digital flip books' for OG questions
-- 100% Free Trial and less than $20 per month after.
-- Free GMAT Quantitative Review
-
- Senior | Next Rank: 100 Posts
- Posts: 51
- Joined: Sun Dec 19, 2010 1:49 pm
- Thanked: 11 times
- Followed by:2 members
Well, in general, there can always be points u can raise unless there clearly is nothing you can question. Here, there could be a third region, midstream, which the author might have skipped. The crop downstream could be replaced by a new crop which does not need as much water. Not sure when these objections would NOT make sense. Pls also help me, in a general way in tackling such questions. Thank you v much.
If you appreciated my post or even just my time trying to help, please don't forget to click on 'Thanks' and say "Piece o' Cake mate" at the same time.