prashant_jak wrote:Recently, some critics of the U.S. government have pointed out that this
country is the only advanced industrialized nation without a national vaccine
laboratory and suggested that this lack makes the American public more
vulnerable than other developed nations to infectious diseases, such as avian
flu. A government official said these critics were disloyal and thus wrong
about the public's vulnerability. To support his claim, the official cited the
generally long life span and low infant mortality of United States citizens,
relative to all United Nation member nations. Mentioning the high quality of
American hospitals, he added that all of the Europeans that he knew
preferred to undergo major medical treatments in the United States rather
than in the socialized medical systems in place in their home countries. All of
the following are weaknesses or potential weaknesses in the official's
argument EXCEPT:
"¢ The high quality of hospitals in the United States is not a factor affecting the
public's vulnerability to infectious disease.
"¢ Whether or not the critics are disloyal has no bearing on whether or not they
are wrong.
"¢ The Europeans that the official cited are a demographically narrow sample,
overwhelmingly composed of wealthy males over the age of fifty.
"¢ The average life span of United States citizens is determined not only by
deaths due to infectious diseases but also by deaths due to all other causes.
"¢ Comparing the United States to all United Nations member nations does not
address the concern that the U.S. is behind other advanced industrialized
nations in a particular way.

Will go with D on this.

IMO D

IMO D...

Recently, some critics of the U.S. government have pointed out that this
country is the only advanced industrialized nation without a national vaccine
laboratory and suggested that this lack makes the American public more
vulnerable than other developed nations to infectious diseases, such as avian
flu. A government official said these critics were disloyal and thus wrong
about the public's vulnerability. To support his claim, the official cited the
generally long life span and low infant mortality of United States citizens,
relative to all United Nation member nations. Mentioning the high quality of
American hospitals, he added that all of the Europeans that he knew
preferred to undergo major medical treatments in the United States rather
than in the socialized medical systems in place in their home countries. All of
the following are weaknesses or potential weaknesses in the official's
argument EXCEPT:
"¢ The high quality of hospitals in the United States is not a factor affecting the
public's vulnerability to infectious disease.
"¢ Whether or not the critics are disloyal has no bearing on whether or not they
are wrong.
"¢ The Europeans that the official cited are a demographically narrow sample,
overwhelmingly composed of wealthy males over the age of fifty.
"¢ The average life span of United States citizens is determined not only by
deaths due to infectious diseases but also by deaths due to all other causes.
"¢ Comparing the United States to all United Nations member nations does not
address the concern that the U.S. is behind other advanced industrialized
nations in a particular way.


MY ANSWER IS B

A also looks fine.

the issue here is to find the staement that is not the weakness in the official argument.

D,c,e can not be the answers as they are the weakness in the argument, as critics are concerned with the fatality rate due to infectious desises not with the over all fatality rate.

A says that high quality of hospitals is not a factor. hence it can't be.
B, C and E are certainly weaknesses in the argument.

Option D says that the oevrall life span also includes other causes of death other than infectious diseses. And as the official mentions that the life span is high, it certainly supports his argument. hence i go with Option D.

Ya agree with D, posts above have pretty much taken care of all points.

I have doubts on D.
D weakens the claim i think, If the average life span of United States citizens is determined not only by
deaths due to infectious diseases but also by deaths due to all other causes, then there is an ample chance that the there could be high number of deaths due to infectious diseases and very low number of deaths due to other causes.
Therefore the high life span could be due to very low number of deaths by other causes.

IMO B should be the answer. In my view this does not have any bearing on the conclusion

Please post the OA

i think d

the OA for this ques is given as A....

@Testluv--> dude we need your help...

i actually felt that all the choices are weakening the conclusion...

This is very tricky. At the outset all look like weakeners. But, in a limited sense, A is better and a strengthener.
Having better hospitals help in better preventive measures, protecting the population against diseases.

HT Helps

2010gmat wrote:the OA for this ques is given as A....

@Testluv--> dude we need your help...

i actually felt that all the choices are weakening the conclusion...

Okay, but I need to know the source first! If it is 1000cr, I am not going to bother (and neither should you).

source is Manhattan CAT

Well, I think choice A clearly weakens.

But because the question stem does not tell us to treat the answer choices as true, if this question stem appeared on the GMAT, it would have to be interpreted as a flaw question, as in the weakness or flaw in the author's argument.

But in a flaw question, all of the answer choices are ALWAYS putative descriptions of the author's reasoning process ("mistakes cause for effect"; "ignores alternative explanations"; etc). Here, none of the answer choices are descriptions of the author's reasoning process...

Hi Testluv,

Could you please elaborate how A is the correct answer.

I'm not clear why D is not correct.