Critical Reasoning

The postal service is badly mismanaged. Forty years ago, first-class letter delivery cost only three cents. Since then, the price has increased nearly tenfold, with an actual decrease in the speed and reliability of service.

Each of the following statements, if true, would tend to weaken the argument above EXCEPT:

(A) The volume of mail handled by the postal service has increased dramatically over the last forty years.
(B) Unprecedented increases in the cost of fuel for trucks and planes have put severe upward pressures on postal delivery costs.
(C) Private delivery services usually charge more than does the postal service for comparable delivery charges.
(D) The average delivery time for a first-class letter four decades ago was actually slightly longer than it is today.
(E) The average level of consumer prices overall has increased more than 300 percent over the last forty years.

IMO C

I boiled down to A and C.

I chose A.

A to me does not weaken the argument that the postal service is badly mismanaged.

imo:C

IMO C.

'A' weakens the point made as the higher cost could be due to the increased volume and not to bad management.

OA is E


I picked D.


A - Volume has increased and hence speed and relaibility has suffered. Post service Not sloppy.

B - reason for cost increase. Postal service not sloppy

C - private services charge more than postal service. Postal services cHarge less. Postal service not sloppy.

D - IMO doesnt affect the argument. Avg delivery time has increased. It could be due to any reason . May be postal service is sloppy.


E - avg consumer prices have increased causing a rise in postal rates. Postal service not sloppy

bleacherseat wrote:OA is E


I picked D.


A - Volume has increased and hence speed and relaibility has suffered. Post service Not sloppy.

B - reason for cost increase. Postal service not sloppy

C - private services charge more than postal service. Postal services cHarge less. Postal service not sloppy.

D - IMO doesnt affect the argument. Avg delivery time has increased. It could be due to any reason . May be postal service is sloppy.


E - avg consumer prices have increased causing a rise in postal rates. Postal service not sloppy

D cannot be the answer becoz D is saying that "The average delivery time for a first-class letter four decades ago was actually slightly longer than it is today. ", So speed has not decreased.
C looks like out of scope. He is talking about Postal services .

C look out of scope and that is why it doesn't weaken the argument.

I'd pick C.

for E - Consumer prices have tripled over the last 40 years but the postal charges have increased tenfold, so one could argue that poor management is the reason why the postal charges have increased at a faster rate than consumer prices. One would expect them to be in line with consumer prices. Thus, in fact strengthening the argument.

That's my justification for E but I had totally missed that on my first pass.

rohangupta83 wrote:C look out of scope and that is why it doesn't weaken the argument.

Question is not asking you to Weaken the argument but to pick a choice which is not "weakning" the argument......

gmat009 wrote: Question is not asking you to Weaken the argument but to pick a choice which is not "weakening" the argument......

True, the question is not asking to weaken the argument but to find a reasoning which would not weaken the argument. C being out of scope does not weaken the argument, nor does it strengthen the argument. It is totally unrelated to the argument so to speak, hence, it could satisfy the criteria of identifying a reasoning which does not weaken the argument.

But we have E which actually strengthens the argument so E is a better choice.

Still not sure why this is E. I chose C as well.

Any explanation why this is E? I still can't conclude why E does not weaken the argument.

IMO D...as it says actually the delivery time ahs been reduced and that is strengthing the arugment as Q wants,
E was v close to be a good choice but consumer prices increased 300 times and postal 10 times...sounds less convicing.

At the beginning I was thinking between A and B...

Then I put aside the fact that it was a VERBAL question and I put my QUANT cd rom in my brain...

if the charged price has increased by 10 times in 40 years, and the inflation has increased only by 4 times, this strenghten the argument, not weakens, since the cost now is higher, in proportion, than 40 years ago

I still feel E should be the answer

I will go with A