Critical Reasoning

It is widely assumed that a museum is helped financially when a generous patron donates a potential exhibit. In truth, however, donated objects require storage space, which is not free, and routine conservation, which is rather expensive. Therefore, such gifts exacerbate rather than lighten the demands made on a museum's financial resources.

Which of the following, if true, most seriously weakens the argument above?

(A) To keep patrons well disposed, a museum will find it advisable to put at least some donated
objects on exhibit rather than merely in storage.
(B) The people who are most likely to donate valuable objects to a museum are also the people who are most likely to make cash gifts to it.
(C) A museum cannot save money by resorting to cheap storage under less than adequate conditions, because so doing would drive up the cost of conservation.
(D) Patrons expect a museum to keep donated objects in its possession rather than to raise cash by selling them.
(E) Objects donated by a patron to a museum are often of such importance that the museum would be obliged to add them to its collection through purchase if necessary.

IMO B

I will go with E

vivek.kapoor83 wrote:IMO B

Vivek,
People are most likely to make gift
also
the gift will be one time
and maintenance cost is life long....

and the gift amount can be very very less as compared to cost of maintenance....

E because weakening the conclusion, the cost of the object consuming the space should be worth more than the space costs.

Come on E
Final Answer.

Whats OA?

OA is E.

These questions are from a document that is widely available on internet.

Some of the answers are just mind boggling.

I have an accuracy of close to 90% when doing official questions . But with these questions , its all a toss up.

I thinnk B is the answer.



E - doesnt support how is the donation not a financial burden which is what the conclusion is driving.

May be donations are large enough to cover the storage and maintetnce.

Stop@800 . Pls try to explain when you pick an answer. ALL of your picks are right , may be I am missing something . I'd like to know the process that leads you to that answer choice.

[email protected] we go by E....i think that is strengtning the argument.Reason ....Conclusion says..it excabrates the finanicial load on musuem. but if they have to purchase from outside also..thats gonna add to their pocket. How, this will weaken the conclusion.,,
Sorry for spelling errors..i am really bad in spellings.

My justification for E -

The argument concludes that the gifts do not lighten the museum's financial resources. We have to weaken this conclusion by proving it is actually beneficial.

Choice E is correct because it says that the museum will anyway have to buy these artifacts - So it saves the cost of buying these artifacts if they are obtained as gifts.

Hope this clarifies...

Hi , Even my opinion is E. What is the actual answer.

Hi , Even my opinion is E. What is the actual answer.

stop@800 wrote:

vivek.kapoor83 wrote:IMO B

Vivek,
People are most likely to make gift
also
the gift will be one time
and maintenance cost is life long....

and the gift amount can be very very less as compared to cost of maintenance....

How can u say that maintenance cost is expensive than cash they donate. In E also it says..they buy the artifacts...so it furthur adds to the finance of the musuem...how its decreasing that load..Pls explain

Picked E.

Conclusion:Therefore, such gifts exacerbate rather than lighten the demands made on a museum's financial resources.

objects donates --> leading to cost increase for the museums.

To weaken it,I was watching out for choices that really help the museum rather ease the financial burden on the museums.

I short listed B,E.

Eliminated B.I believe E is more closely related to the argument than B.

AJ,

While you may have thought process that is better than mine since you are right on this one. But I can't understand E as an answer.

One of my observation in critical reasoning is that you have to take into account the premise that leads to conclusion. A conclusion can be strenthened by lot of things when not taken in a context.

In this case , E says , museum would have bought the statute if they were no donated. How is this not a financial burden ?


the structure of the argument is --

artifacts are donated - > cost of storage and upkeep increases.

what weakens it ??

If you look at E , it suggests that finance may not be a problem for museum since it has the resources to buy and pay for the upkeep. But it going off on a tangent.


But B , while not a very strong statement suggests that donations may be an source to pay for the expenses.
Before reading the answer choices I was looking for something close to revenue generation by those artifacts when on display. Since I did not find that one , to me B appeared next best.


Care to explain what process leads you to E ?

B is more relebant to me than E.

Here goes my reasoning:

museum helped with donations

but actually
donations take space and maintenance

so such gifts are burden

now we need to weaken
that is we need to prove that space and maintenance of donated items is not a burden....


lets see each option one by one


A
some on exhibit
has nothing to do with space and maintenance cost


B
people will make cash gifts

first they are most likely to make
what about those who will not

also
how long will this cash gift help (for maintenance)
1 yr... 2 yr.. 10 years
but wht about afterwards............
[We can keep thsi for time being but it will go off later]


C
it says we can not reduce the storage cost...
so it actually strengthens that it will be a burden


D
they expect to keep objects with museum
and not to sell
again museum will have to bear all those costs


E
it says museum will any way buy these
so after buying also
museum will spend on space and maintenance
so if it's getting the items for free
its a positive
hence this becomes our answer


Hope this helps!!!