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The population of desert tortoises

Expert replies
by maihuna » Mon Dec 21, 2009 9:43 am
The population of desert tortoises in Targland's Red Desert has declined, partly because they are captured for sale as pets and partly because people riding all-terrain vehicles have damaged their habitat. Targland plans to halt this population decline by blocking the current access routes into the desert and announcing new regulations to allow access only on foot. Targland's officials predict that these measures will be adequate, since it is difficult to collect the tortoises without a vehicle.
Which of the following would it be most important to establish in order to evaluate the officials' prediction?
A. Whether possessing the tortoises as pets remains legally permissible in Targland
B. Whether Targland is able to enforce the regulations with respect to all-terrain vehicle entry at points other than the current access routes
C. Whether the Red Desert tortoises are most active during the day or at night
D. Whether people who travel on foot in the Red Desert often encounter the tortoises
E. Whether the Targland authorities held public hearings before restricting entry by vehicle into the Red Desert
Answer[spoiler]:B[/spoiler]
Charged up again to beat the beast :)
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Source: — Critical Reasoning |

by SYim » Mon Dec 21, 2009 1:12 pm
IMO A

I will post my reasoning once this is the correct answer- don't want to give false reasoning :)
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by Stuart@KaplanGMAT » Mon Dec 21, 2009 5:47 pm
maihuna wrote:The population of desert tortoises in Targland's Red Desert has declined, partly because they are captured for sale as pets and partly because people riding all-terrain vehicles have damaged their habitat. Targland plans to halt this population decline by blocking the current access routes into the desert and announcing new regulations to allow access only on foot. Targland's officials predict that these measures will be adequate, since it is difficult to collect the tortoises without a vehicle.
Which of the following would it be most important to establish in order to evaluate the officials' prediction?
A. Whether possessing the tortoises as pets remains legally permissible in Targland
B. Whether Targland is able to enforce the regulations with respect to all-terrain vehicle entry at points other than the current access routes
C. Whether the Red Desert tortoises are most active during the day or at night
D. Whether people who travel on foot in the Red Desert often encounter the tortoises
E. Whether the Targland authorities held public hearings before restricting entry by vehicle into the Red Desert
Relevant information questions are really hybrid strengthen/weaken questions. The correct answer will be a question with 2 possible answers: one answer will strengthen the argument, the other will weaken it. The wrong choices will all be outside the scope, i.e. the answers to their questions are all irrelevant.

Here, (B) is the only relevant question.

If Targland can enforce the regs for all-terrain vehicles, then it will be harder to capture the tortoises and the plan should work.

If Targland can't enforce the regs for all-terrain vehicles, then people can still ATV into the desert to pick up the poor critters and the plan will likely fail.

Accordingly, whether Targland can enforce the regs for ATVs is relevant and (B) is correct.
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by Testluv » Tue Dec 22, 2009 12:50 am
The correct answer is definitely choice B as per Stuart's comments above.

One potential point of confusion is that choice B discusses "entry points other than the current access routes" while the argument discusses blocking current access routes. This does not at all make choice B outside the scope. Instead, this is actually very relevant to determining whether the plan will work: The prediction that the plan will work simply assumes that people won't be able to circumvent the currently blocked off routes by entering through entry points other than the current access routes.

If people are able to come in through entry points other than the current access routes, then the plan won't likely work, and the prediction is weakened. And, if people aren't able to come in through entry points other than the current access routes, the plan is more likely to work, and the prediction that it will work is strengthened. Thus, choice B is relevant.
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Re

by navdeepbajwa » Sat Jan 02, 2010 4:01 pm
Why D is wrong
If we answer yes to D the plan will fail
and no plan will survive

Also instructors always please explain why all other choices are wrong beacuse most of the time we are confused between two choices as in this one i was confused between B & D I could not rule out both of them

thanks
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by Testluv » Sat Jan 02, 2010 5:13 pm
navdeepbajwa wrote:Why D is wrong
If we answer yes to D the plan will fail
and no plan will survive

Also instructors always please explain why all other choices are wrong beacuse most of the time we are confused between two choices as in this one i was confused between B & D I could not rule out both of them

thanks
The reason most instructors won't explain why wrong answers are wrong is because process of elimination is necessarily inferior to predicting the correct answer. That said, if there is a particular wrong answer that is very tempting, I will usually explain why it is wrong.

Choice D is wrong because it only talks about "encountering" the tortoises on foot. Encountering tortoises is a lot different from capturing them. In fact, the very last clause of the passage tells us that it is very difficult to capture tortoises without a vehicle.
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