Kaplan CR Q2

[confuse mind]

Shareholders and investment analysts have criticized the Vista Products Company for having slow and outdated computer systems in its factories when these systems are compared to Vista's competitor's systems. However, a Vista representative has claimed that such criticism is unfair. The representative noted that Vista spent more money last year per factory upgrading its computer systems than any of its competitors did.

Which of the following, if true, most seriously discredits the reasoning in the company representative's argument?

A. Overall spending per factory on computer systems is lower in Vista Product's industry than in other industries.

B. Vista Products is not as profitable as some of its competitors

C. Companies with fast, modern computer systems would have no need to spend large amounts of money to upgrade these systems.

D. No investment analyst has visited every single Vista Products factory.

E. When assessing the overall quality of a company's operations, production line speed is more critical than the quality of the company's computer systems.


IMO - C OA - not known

[tisrar02]

I would say C because it seems like the only answer choice that seriously weakens the argument made by the rep.

[hjafferi]

IMO C

Only answer that weekends the argument.

[KapTeacherEli]

In the stimulus to this Weaken question, the author argues that Vista's computer system is out of date. However, he bases his claim no on information about the system itself, but on the money expended on that system. This is a classic GMAT Scope Shift, so we can paraphrase the assumption underlying the authors argument:

High expenditures on a computer system mean that system is fast and modern.

This question asks us to weaken the argument, and on the GMAT, that means contradict the assumption. Since (C) does exactly that, it's the correct answer to this question.

Best,

[mohan514]

taking the question personally will save time here
that would br the obvious question you ll ask him when he boasts of his company's expenditure and poor performance