hard question from gmaptprep.

[tanviet]

the following is from gmatprep.
Normally, we prethink an assumption before going to answer choices for strengthening question. in the following, ple, describe your prethinking process and how do you eliminate choice B and D. I feel this question hard.

pls, help. Thank you.

Over the last 5 years, the number of new cell phones in India have far outpaced the number of new landlines. This does not mean however that people don't need landlines and that land lines are being or will be replaced by Cell phones. The average # of minutes spent per landline have constantly increased over the last 5 years.
Which of the following if true will support the outcome of the study described above?
A.Of those who bought cell phones in the past 5 years, only a small fraction of those currently do no own a landline.
B.Landlines do not cost higher on a per minute basis than cell phones do.
C.While most of the country is covered by a cell phone network, land line networks have not reached the nook and corners of the country.
D.In spite of the technical advantages on the cell phone, the voice quality on cell phones is not as excellent as that on the landlines
E.People who own a smartphone, a special type of cell phone also use it to check email and to send short messages.

[ice_rush]

Choice B and D can be quickly ruled out because there is NO mention of cost or quality for either cell phone or landline.

choic C supports the outcome of the study.

what's the oa?

[rupamroy]

Is the OA D?

[charu_mahajan]

IMO B

In between B and D, D states that " voice quality is not as excellent as". I assume , if not excellent, it is good enough.
In B, low cost could be the incentive. Please share the OA.

C looks contrary to me ice_rush? Why Did u choose C?

[tanviet]

I want us to discuss more. Specifically, I want to discuss the prethinking of an assumption before going to answer choices.

This is an official question and should be studied.

normally, prethinking an assumption help us realize the strengthener. How the prethinking is helpful here. pls discuss.

[charu_mahajan]

I think I got it why ice_rush chose C.


The number of new cell phones in India have far outpaced the number of new land lines. (Fact)

However,

This does not mean that new land lines are not needed or will be replaced by Cell phones (Conclusion)

Because,

No of mins per land line have increased. (Fact)

Ok. So the author says that just because # of cell phones have increased does not mean that # of land lines will decrease. There can be many assumptions like - Maybe it's expensive to call using a cell phone and people keep them for emergency, maybe land lines cover local area and STD/ ISD is required while it's convenient to call using cell which has roaming facility, Maybe the voice quality is not good enough etc. There can be many assumptions.

Now this questions is about strengthening the argument. In this case we need to look for conclusion.
The conclusion is - "This does not mean however that people don't need land lines and that land lines are being or will be replaced by Cell phones". Choice C states that land lines have not reached the nook and corner of the country. It means that there is still a chance for it to expand. This is supporting the conclusion.

Please correct if this reasoning is flawed.

[tanviet]

the key is the process of doing this question. going to the correct answer, using the correct process is meaningful.

most experts, persons advise us to prethink an assumption before looking a strengthener in the answer choices.

what I want to know is
- how to prethink an assumption here
- how this prethinking/assumption help find out the correct strengthener.

normally, for normal questions, I see the prethinking an assumption is helpful particularly. but, for this problem, how the prethinking help. pls, explain.

pls, do not search the internet to find the correct answer and agree to the explanation there. the point here is to find out the process for doing this kind of question not to find the OA.

[TheAnuja55]

Refer https://www.manhattangmat.com/forums/cr- ... 16995.html

[Perfectus]

I'll try... not sure if my approach is correct...

I broke the problem into:

1) # of cell phones > # of land lines
2) people need landlines
3) cell phones will not replace land lines
4) # of usage of land lines increased

My pre-thinking becomes:
- Landlines must have something special that, despite people own cell phones, they still need to use their landlines.

I've weed out A, C, & E. Now question is B & D.

For B:
If telecom lowers the mobile usage price, will that lowers the usage of land-lines?
Maybe, but that doesn't explain why people need the landlines, and that cell phones will not replace land-lines.

For D: The quality issue explains all of the conditions.

[David@VeritasPrep]

This is NOT an official GMATPrep question from GMAC!!

It is from "E-GMAT" Verbal September Batch. It is as unofficial as a question gets. This question has MULTIPLE errors in subject-verb agreement, in idiom usage, and other logic and grammar mistakes. Additionally - THERE IS NO CORRECT ANSWER!

None of the answers are correct. I can tell you that as someone who has earned a perfect score on the GMAT Verbal and on the LSAT logical reasoning. This question does not have a proper answer.

I appreciate the efforts of Perfectus, TheAnuja55, Charu_mahajan, rupamroy, and ice-rush. You guys all tried hard to work with this question as you were told that it was not an official question.

People should take care to verify the source of a question before posting it. It is always MUCH more helpful to have the source noted when a question is posted. This means VERIFYING the source first. This question can not only send people down the wrong path on Critical Reasoning, but it can also set back their efforts in sentence correction as well!