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China and Tea - Inference

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China and Tea - Inference

by GmatKiss » Mon Oct 17, 2011 4:28 am
In 800AD, a man named Lu Yu wrote the first known book on tea cultivation and preparation. The work, called the Ch'a Ching, melded Zen Buddhist teachings with the art and craft of tea, forever linking the drink to spirituality.

Which of the following inferences may be drawn from the discussion of Lu Yu's work?

A. Before 800AD, it was largely unknown how to cultivate tea.

B. Some people even today drink tea for reasons other than its physical benefits.

C. Drinking tea was primarily a Zen Buddhist practice until the late 700s.

D. The Ch'a Ching is one of the earliest works of Chinese origin that is concerned with agriculture.

E. Lu Yu was interested in popularizing tea in countries other than China.

OA after sometime!
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by BellTheGMAT » Mon Oct 17, 2011 5:54 am
IMO B.
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by pemdas » Mon Oct 17, 2011 6:21 am
b isn't right, see how broad this choice is
B. Some people even today drink tea for reasons other than its physical benefits.

which reasons? too broad, it doesn't specify ...

a. this choice is extreme and assumes just too much about knowledge linked to book(s) only
c. out of scope, no place in the text indicates that the tea was drunk until the late 700s
d. also out of scope/too broad
e. must be right - again too difficult CR entry, only by selecting off wrong answers, I assume e is correct

my rationale is that the art and craft of whatever is not known and practiced/cultivated is not possible. So tea has already been popular in China and Lu Yu decided to popularize it outside of China. Also he melded Buddhist teachings which also may be known kn China.

IOM e
GmatKiss wrote:In 800AD, a man named Lu Yu wrote the first known book on tea cultivation and preparation. The work, called the Ch'a Ching, melded Zen Buddhist teachings with the art and craft of tea, forever linking the drink to spirituality.

Which of the following inferences may be drawn from the discussion of Lu Yu's work?

A. Before 800AD, it was largely unknown how to cultivate tea.

B. Some people even today drink tea for reasons other than its physical benefits.

C. Drinking tea was primarily a Zen Buddhist practice until the late 700s.

D. The Ch'a Ching is one of the earliest works of Chinese origin that is concerned with agriculture.

E. Lu Yu was interested in popularizing tea in countries other than China.

OA after sometime!
Last edited by pemdas on Mon Oct 17, 2011 6:45 am, edited 1 time in total.
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by BellTheGMAT » Mon Oct 17, 2011 6:33 am
in my opinion, option B atleast strengthens that there are "reasons" other than physical benifits for which people have tea.
I agree, its too broad to assume one such reason to be spiritual, but I couldnt find no other option within suitable limits.

OA plz...
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by pemdas » Mon Oct 17, 2011 6:46 am
oh sorry, slow connection - i have just updated above
care to feed back?
BellTheGMAT wrote:in my opinion, option B atleast strengthens that there are "reasons" other than physical benifits for which people have tea.
I agree, its too broad to assume one such reason to be spiritual, but I couldnt find no other option within suitable limits.

OA plz...
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by enjoylife1788 » Mon Oct 17, 2011 7:56 am
IMO B it is. Please please post the OA. :)
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by garima99 » Mon Oct 17, 2011 8:24 am
B it is
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by pemdas » Mon Oct 17, 2011 8:40 am
what's the source of this question?

usually official source does not leave empty holes in answers ...
garima99 wrote:B it is
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by GmatKiss » Mon Oct 17, 2011 10:11 am
OA is B
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by krishnakumar.ks » Mon Oct 17, 2011 10:37 am
B. Since it states that ppl today are dringking it for reasons other than its physical benefits. That is linking it to spirituality and this is exactly what the stimulus says. Most of the options are out of scope and C and D are rejected straightaway since China doesn't show up in the stimulus at all.
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by pemdas » Mon Oct 17, 2011 11:03 am
i'm not trying to go in deep debate about this question, as the latter is being considered by me as useless in terms of learning throughput...

but see one may never mention the word American in stimulus (as you correctly noted China is not there) but put in text Abraham Linkoln and cite him as a president or put the statue Liberty there and then seek in all five answer choices A-E the word American or the US, why to discount on the China factor :)

ok, if the above was too speculative, please take notes of your carefully read stimulus again:
"... forever linking the drink to spirituality"
and the answer choice b: "Some people even today drink tea for reasons other than its physical benefits."

the last but not least, as this question is quite amazing in terms of its "self-containing" logic. Do we really discuss here benefits? Maybe other qualities are more of use... who makes an assumption here? Spirituality is also abstract, official sources avoid using abstract in correct answer choices.
krishnakumar.ks wrote:B. Since it states that ppl today are dringking it for reasons other than its physical benefits. That is linking it to spirituality and this is exactly what the stimulus says. Most of the options are out of scope and C and D are rejected straightaway since China doesn't show up in the stimulus at all.
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by mankey » Tue Jan 31, 2012 11:03 am
This one is not clear, please help.

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by ArunangsuSahu » Tue Jan 31, 2012 7:44 pm
None of the answer choices can be inferred.. the source is WRONG
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by [email protected] » Tue Jan 31, 2012 9:41 pm
In 800AD, a man named Lu Yu wrote the first known book on tea cultivation and preparation. The work, called the Ch'a Ching, melded Zen Buddhist teachings with the art and craft of tea, forever linking the drink to spirituality.

Which of the following inferences may be drawn from the discussion of Lu Yu's work?

A. Before 800AD, it was largely unknown how to cultivate tea.

B. Some people even today drink tea for reasons other than its physical benefits.

C. Drinking tea was primarily a Zen Buddhist practice until the late 700s.

D. The Ch'a Ching is one of the earliest works of Chinese origin that is concerned with agriculture.

E. Lu Yu was interested in popularizing tea in countries other than China.


Honestly, the option B strengthens the argument but cannot be inferred from the given stimulus.
According to me the explanation goes as below:

Option A : simply out of scope as nothing is mentioned about things before 800 AD.

Option B : Strengthens the argument but cannot be inferred come what may...

Option C: Can act as an assumption as there has to be some relation between the chinese culture
and the art of tea...

Option D: Simply out of scope

Option E: According to me the explanation given by Pemdas is absolutely right as out of the 5
options given, option E turns out to be the best to become the OA. This can be inferred from the stimulus being presented to us..


Could any of the experts please help in this question...
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by Jim@Grockit » Tue Jan 31, 2012 9:46 pm
I would have chosen B as well. If they were FOREVER linked, they are linked today we have to accept the passage as true). If it was linked to SPIRITUAL stuff in 800, some people must be using it for that, rather than physical reasons.
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