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assumption question

by voodoo_child » Fri Jun 03, 2011 9:10 pm
Investment analyst: The CEO of the diamond mining company is telling investors that the discovery of a new deposit of diamonds proves that previous concerns regarding the depletion of the company's mines were unfounded. This argument is deceptive, however; like the oil company that had to file for bankruptcy last year after quickly exhausting its newest oil reservoir, the diamond company has merely postponed its troubles, not solved them, by discovering this new deposit.

The analyst's statements assumes that ?


(A) The diamond company will likely file for bankruptcy by the end of this year.

(B) The rate at which diamonds can be mined from a deposit is similar to the rate at which oil can be extracted from a reservoir.

(C) There are techniques for assessing accurately the number of diamond deposits not yet extracted from a mine.

(D) Investors should continue to be concerned that the diamond company's mines are becoming depleted.

(E) The diamond company's troubles involve more than just the depletion of its mines.
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by smackmartine » Fri Jun 03, 2011 9:39 pm
IMO D

I think you forgot to delete "correct" and "your answer" :)

Btw if you negate that "Investors should continue to be concerned that the diamond company's mines are becoming depleted" it will be

Investors should NOT continue to be concerned that the diamond company's mines are becoming depleted.

This will weaken the conclusion that "the diamond company has merely postponed its troubles, not solved them" .

B) "rate" is out of scope. There is no comparison between rates of depletion of diamond mines and that of oil extraction .
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by sivaelectric » Fri Jun 03, 2011 9:41 pm
My choice is D :)
If I am wrong correct me :), If my post helped let me know by clicking the Thanks button ;).

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by cans » Sat Jun 04, 2011 10:06 am
Please explain how you got the answer..
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by sivaelectric » Sat Jun 04, 2011 10:25 am
voodoo_child wrote:Investment analyst: The CEO of the diamond mining company is telling investors that the discovery of a new deposit of diamonds proves that previous concerns regarding the depletion of the company's mines were unfounded. This argument is deceptive, however; like the oil company that had to file for bankruptcy last year after quickly exhausting its newest oil reservoir, the diamond company has merely postponed its troubles, not solved them, by discovering this new deposit.

The analyst's statements assumes that ?

The analyst is assuming that similar to the Oil companies, Diamond company also will face mine depletion and go bankrupt. Hence he assumes that Investors should be concerned that the diamond company's mines are becoming depleted.
If I am wrong correct me :), If my post helped let me know by clicking the Thanks button ;).

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by GMATMadeEasy » Sat Jun 04, 2011 2:24 pm
I would say D is rephrase of conclusion , it is not assumption.

Assumption is that the company under discussion will meet the same fate as oil company.hence will likely go bankrupt. A should be the answer.

Investors should be concerned about depletion bla bla is not assumption but a logical inference.
I let experts comment on this.
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by cans » Sat Jun 04, 2011 9:32 pm
D seems to be the best. But still not convinced.....
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by Stuart@KaplanGMAT » Sat Jun 04, 2011 10:31 pm
voodoo_child wrote:Investment analyst: The CEO of the diamond mining company is telling investors that the discovery of a new deposit of diamonds proves that previous concerns regarding the depletion of the company's mines were unfounded. This argument is deceptive, however; like the oil company that had to file for bankruptcy last year after quickly exhausting its newest oil reservoir, the diamond company has merely postponed its troubles, not solved them, by discovering this new deposit.

The analyst's statements assumes that ?


(A) The diamond company will likely file for bankruptcy by the end of this year.

(B) The rate at which diamonds can be mined from a deposit is similar to the rate at which oil can be extracted from a reservoir. your answer

(C) There are techniques for assessing accurately the number of diamond deposits not yet extracted from a mine.

(D) Investors should continue to be concerned that the diamond company's mines are becoming depleted. correct

(E) The diamond company's troubles involve more than just the depletion of its mines.
What's the source? If this were an inference question, then D would be correct; however, since this is an assumption question, B is definitely the right answer.

As GMATMadeEasy notes, D is just a summary of the analyst's conclusion, whereas an assumption is a missing but necessary piece of evidence.

Let's deconstruct the argument, as we should do for every assumption question:

Conc: the new mine merely postpones, rather than fixes, the diamond company's problem.
Evid: an oil company found a new reservoir and quickly depleted it.

Here we have one of the most common argument forms that we see on the GMAT: representativeness. The evidence is about one company, the conclusion another; in every such argument, the author has to be assuming that the group in the evidence is representative of the group in the conclusion. Or, in other words, that the two groups being compared are actually comparable.

We predict: the correct answer will show a strong (and relevant) connection between oil wells and diamond mines.

With that prediction in mind, (B) jumps right out at us - done!

Predicting an answer before looking at the choices is incredibly powerful; a CR expert can predict the answer to most assumption, strengthen and weaken questions, which generally make up 75-80% of CR.

Smackmartine used the denial test to check the choices. The denial test is also a great tool, but you have to make sure you apply it correctly.

Since this is an assumption question, the denial (i.e. opposite) of the correct choice will destroy the argument. Let's look at the denial of B:

B) it is not true that the rate at which diamonds can be mined from a deposit is similar to the rate at which oil can be extracted from a reservoir; or

the rate at which diamonds are mined is different from the rate at which oil is extracted.

The denial of B clearly invalidates using the oil company's experience as evidence for the diamond company's future; accordingly, B is a necessary assumption.
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by [email protected] » Sun Jun 05, 2011 1:06 am
Hi thanks Stuart becoz yesterday when I read this question and saw the answer posted by others i went puzzled as assumption question is one of my big weakness. I chose the answer to be B as it defines the correlation between two dissimilar things. Atlast i was right!!!!
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by cans » Sun Jun 05, 2011 2:25 am
Nice explanation
And finally its clear :)
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by GMATMadeEasy » Sun Jun 05, 2011 3:10 am
@Stuart Kovinsky : I have issues with B , let me explain why ?

We don't need to assume EXACT rate of depletion for the conclusion to be true. Both sources could have entirely different amount of reserves , so even with different rates or same rate of depletion wont make difference. The final result and assumed is that new oil reserve will exhaust.

I could think a bit A but this also has error . Author partially assumes that this company will also go bankrupt but not that by end of this year.

So none is correct. Please let me know if my line of reasoning is correct.
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by dv2020 » Sun Jun 05, 2011 4:46 am
Hi,
Please clarify the source of this question. In the really representative stuff the correct answer will be popping out. Not in this one.
voodoo_child wrote:Investment analyst: The CEO of the diamond mining company is telling investors that the discovery of a new deposit of diamonds proves that previous concerns regarding the depletion of the company's mines were unfounded. This argument is deceptive, however; like the oil company that had to file for bankruptcy last year after quickly exhausting its newest oil reservoir, the diamond company has merely postponed its troubles, not solved them, by discovering this new deposit.

The analyst's statements assumes that ?


(A) The diamond company will likely file for bankruptcy by the end of this year.

(B) The rate at which diamonds can be mined from a deposit is similar to the rate at which oil can be extracted from a reservoir. your answer

(C) There are techniques for assessing accurately the number of diamond deposits not yet extracted from a mine.

(D) Investors should continue to be concerned that the diamond company's mines are becoming depleted. correct

(E) The diamond company's troubles involve more than just the depletion of its mines.
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by Stuart@KaplanGMAT » Sun Jun 05, 2011 10:06 am
GMATMadeEasy wrote:@Stuart Kovinsky : I have issues with B , let me explain why ?

We don't need to assume EXACT rate of depletion for the conclusion to be true. Both sources could have entirely different amount of reserves , so even with different rates or same rate of depletion wont make difference. The final result and assumed is that new oil reserve will exhaust.

I could think a bit A but this also has error . Author partially assumes that this company will also go bankrupt but not that by end of this year.

So none is correct. Please let me know if my line of reasoning is correct.
Hi,

you're right, we don't need the rates to be identical - that's exactly why the language of B ("the rate.. IS SIMILAR to the rate...") is perfect for this question.

If B had said "the rate... is identical to the rate..." then it would have been overly precise and you could have eliminated it.
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