Princeton Review CAT - The noise caused by airplanes during

This topic has expert replies
Junior | Next Rank: 30 Posts
Posts: 17
Joined: Sat Jun 27, 2009 1:15 am
The noise caused by airplanes during takeoff and landing imposes a large burden on people who live or work near airports. When airports operate late at night or early in the morning, the disturbance can disrupt normal sleeping patterns, even leading to severe sleep deprivation disorders. When the flight paths of airplanes lie too close to the ground, the resulting noise interferes with work performance in nearby businesses and the peaceful enjoyment of life by residents in the proximity. However, the operation of an airport, unlike a neighbor who simply plays music too loudly, provides a valuable benefit to the surrounding community, in the form of convenient transportation for both personal and economic purposes. Thus the only option is to establish standards for the reasonable operation of airports and fine those that violate the guidelines.

The bolded phrase plays which of the following roles in the argument above?


A) It explains why one potential alternative to establishing a system of standards and fines is unacceptable.


B)It provides background information that is not directly related to the conclusion of the argument.


C) It supports a policy of stricter regulations for airports than for neighbors’ playing of music.

D) It undermines the argument advocating a system of regulations and fines for the unreasonable operation of an airport.


E) It explains why some people choose to live near enough to airports to be affected by the noise.


OA=A

please Explain with Reasoning.[/spoiler]

GMAT/MBA Expert

User avatar
GMAT Instructor
Posts: 2228
Joined: Wed Dec 27, 2006 3:28 pm
Location: Montreal, Canada
Thanked: 639 times
Followed by:694 members
GMAT Score:780

by Stacey Koprince » Fri Aug 14, 2009 8:20 am
Received a PM asking me to respond. I don't like this one. It's not written in the general format we should expect of bold-faced questions (generic argument language in the choices - not language that specifically references reasoning and details in this argument). And the OA is not how this would be written for an official question. For an official question, the OA would have something to do with the fact that the boldface statement is ultimately in support of the argument's conclusion - it's a premise. It would not be used to refer to a "potential alternative" (maybe shutting down the airport?) that is not even mentioned in the argument at all.

Short answer: I wouldn't study this one.
Please note: I do not use the Private Messaging system! I will not see any PMs that you send to me!!

Stacey Koprince
GMAT Instructor
Director of Online Community
Manhattan GMAT

Contributor to Beat The GMAT!

Learn more about me

GMAT/MBA Expert

User avatar
GMAT Instructor
Posts: 3380
Joined: Mon Mar 03, 2008 1:20 am
Thanked: 2256 times
Followed by:1535 members
GMAT Score:800

by lunarpower » Mon Aug 24, 2009 1:23 am
@ stacey
agreed.

takeaway:

WHENEVER an "analyze argument structure" question mentions "premises", "counterarguments", etc.
- i.e., ANY word that refers to a specific statement or type of statement - you must BE ABLE TO LOCATE that actual statement within the passage.

as stacey said above, the official test will NEVER refer to a statement that is only obtusely hinted at. that's how normal conversation works, but that is NOT the way in which the gmat questions are written.

choice (a) is meant to imply that the boldface is, tacitly, ruling out the idea of stopping airport operations altogether.
this would be a reasonable inference in conversation, but NOT on the test.

you should henceforth consider the source of this question to be of dubious quality.
Ron has been teaching various standardized tests for 20 years.

--

Pueden hacerle preguntas a Ron en castellano
Potete chiedere domande a Ron in italiano
On peut poser des questions à Ron en français
Voit esittää kysymyksiä Ron:lle myös suomeksi

--

Quand on se sent bien dans un vêtement, tout peut arriver. Un bon vêtement, c'est un passeport pour le bonheur.

Yves Saint-Laurent

--

Learn more about ron