Critical Reasoning

B?

"Limitation on the applicability of the proposed method of decontamination"
-> This method of decontamination is limited because...

B: This method of decontamination can only be limited to water with higher temperature.

D: There is no indication within the passage that supply of large-leaved Sunflowers is limited.

IMO Answer is B.

Days wrote:B?

"Limitation on the applicability of the proposed method of decontamination"
-> This method of decontamination is limited because...

B: This method of decontamination can only be limited to water with higher temperature.

D: There is no indication within the passage that supply of large-leaved Sunflowers is limited.

BUT “The sunflowers kept growing; in the process, they absorbed radioactive elements. ”


Answer B. The water in many ponds contaminated with radioactive elements is so cold that it would kill sunflowers whose roots were submerged in it.

is B ambivalent??

Leiya2007, I don't think so! Because in B it is saying water in some of the ponds is so cold that sun-flower can die. But in the argument, it is saying about a pond on which scientist made their research. This is according to my understanding and that's the way thru which I got the answer. Though we still don't know what is OA!

[quote="Leiya2007]

BUT “The sunflowers kept growing; in the process, they absorbed radioactive elements. ”

Answer B. The water in many ponds contaminated with radioactive elements is so cold that it would kill sunflowers whose roots were submerged in it.

is B ambivalent??[/quote]

My interpretation is that:

Answer B: The water in many ponds contaminated with radioactive elements is so cold that it would kill sunflowers whose roots were submerged in it.

--> Not all ponds. Hence, application is limited to ONLY ponds with the right temperature.

Although Answer D poses as a logical limitation, there is no evidence in the passage that sunflowers with big leaves are limited in supply. Therefore, it cannot be established as a limitation.

What's the answer?

In my opinion the answer is B. B has a clear limitation - you can only use this method in ponds where the water is not too cold; in other words, the size of available ponds for which this technique can be applied it reduced. D seems like a limitation, but you could just find sunflowers with small leaves (assuming such sunflowers exist and are in abundant supply) and use them in any and every pond.

But what I would like to point out is that this type of question is very unlike the questions you would typically see on the GMAT or even the OG11 and OG review books. Answer choices B and D both appear to provide limitations and only by making certain assumptions would a tester be able to choose between the two. This is not like the OG11 problems - you rarely need to make assumptions about an answer choice and logic your way to the answer. In addition, the OG questions are clear cut - answers that are wrong are often clearly wrong (even if you do not initially think it is) and the explanations provide good reasons why they are wrong.

IMO, this is the kind of verbal question you want to stay away from because the thought processes are so different from the OG11 that it may affect how you think on the real GMAT verbal. I found, during my prep, that MGMAT questions were similar this question and had very complicated reasoning that different follow the thought process of the official material so I never touched the MGMAT verbal material after that except for the CATs.*

* the MGMAT SC book is still good though!

OA please?

I think OA should be B as it points out that in many ponds contaminated with radioactive elements is so cold that it would kill sunflowers whose roots were submerged in it.
While stems says that "Scientists therefore propose using sunflowers for decontamination wherever there are radioactively contaminated ponds." see the word whenever carefully, stem asks whenever facts says in many ponds the flower is impossible to survive, so B is a solid point why the scheme will not work.

While D is far off, it says that only a specific type of sunflower root's can submerge and survive, as long as no availability issues are raised we have no reason to worry, whatever varieties are available will be used.

I will also go with B based on the knowledge that answers with strong words like all, only etc are less preferred

IMO - B Reason same as above

The correct answer is definitely choice B, and maihuna's reasoning (both for why B is right and why D is wrong) is good.

I don't want anyone to be confused by @mayonai5e's remark above: I think this is definitely a valid GMAT style question, and that choice D is definitely incorrect. The question asks us for a fact that would point to a limitation in the applicability of the method. Choice D limits the method to using sunflowers with large leaves. But choice D neither suggests nor establishes that sunflowers with large leaves are lacking in supply. Also, choice D does not suggest that sunflowers in general are lacking in supply. Thus, choice D does not necessariliy point to a limitation in the applicability of the method.

On the other hand, choice B necessarily points to a limitation in the applicability of the method. Thus, choice B satisfies the conditions of the question while choice D, along with the rest of the choices, do not. Thus, there is only one answer that necessarily satisfies the conditions of the question. I don't see anything else wrong with this question either. So, (I think) this is a fine GMAT-style question.

Testluv wrote: I don't want anyone to be confused by @mayonai5e's remark above: I think this is definitely a valid GMAT style question, and that choice D is definitely incorrect.

TestLuv I have become a fan of you, it has become a fashion for people, leave apart instructors, even students have started regularly saying no its not gmat style.

I can share with you several instances where 2-year old questions were rejected on ground that blah blah is impossible to appear in gmat because of blah blah, and then when they did appeared in gmatprep, the same instructor saying that , you know it is correct because of this/that including it is gmat playground, let us play by their rule.

So really liked your approach, both in answering all type of questions and in discouraging at least the students opinions for not being gmattish short of. Thanks.

maihuna wrote:

Testluv wrote: I don't want anyone to be confused by @mayonai5e's remark above: I think this is definitely a valid GMAT style question, and that choice D is definitely incorrect.

TestLuv I have become a fan of you, it has become a fashion for people, leave apart instructors, even students have started regularly saying no its not gmat style.

I can share with you several instances where 2-year old questions were rejected on ground that blah blah is impossible to appear in gmat because of blah blah, and then when they did appeared in gmatprep, the same instructor saying that , you know it is correct because of this/that including it is gmat playground, let us play by their rule.

So really liked your approach, both in answering all type of questions and in discouraging at least the students opinions for not being gmattish short of. Thanks.

Well, thank you very much Maihuna.

In general, if I don't think a question is well-designed, I won't post in the thread. To be clear, here is what I think about this. I think students should endeavour to study only official GMAT questions and/or questions from major test prep companies. Questions from other sources have not been checked, re-checked, experimented with students, etc, and so there may be serious design issues with these questions. "Design issues" might sound mundane but what it will likely mean is that you will walk away with bad take-aways, bad information or at the very least have only a poor idea of GMAT logic. Now, I understand that people, for whatever reason, may not have access to questions from test prep companies or they may feel as though they need extra practice in verbal. (After all, there are textbooks for math.) Then, I understand the sentiment of wanting to turn to some LSAT questions. Published official LSAT questions will not have design flaws. However, there is a different kind of danger here: LSAT tests skills and subtleties that GMAT doesn't; LSAT topics are broader in range; and any given GMAT CR is far more likely to involve quantitative or other business-related skills than LSAT; LSAT grammatical construction and "wordiness" conventions is different; etc. The only way I see it "okay" to work on LSAT questions is if an instructor who teaches both tests chose the questions.

Now, having said all of that, I think you also raise an excellent point. If the student is working on a question from a trusted source, and if the student aspires to learn anything, then the student's default position must be assuming that everything in the question is designed correctly. Any other approach would inhibit learning: Instead of endeavouring to figure out why a wrong answer is wrong, a student may just take the position that the questoin is designed incorrectly and will discontinue thinking about it. This kind of rationalizing is clearly destined to fail. This is why Kaplan's position is to train students to respect the test; there's no gimmicky outs, and the test is designed flawlessly. Now, if a student reallly does think there is a problem with the design of a question, why, they have this forum!

Testluv

D CONTRADICT evidence, is that right?

for W,S,A question, answer choice that RESTATE or CONTRADICT evidence is wrong automatically