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by GMATMadeEasy » Sat Jun 18, 2011 2:39 am
After observing the Earth's weather patterns and the 11-year sunspot cycle of the Sun for 36 years, scientists have found that high levels of sunspot activity precede shifts in wind patterns that affect the Earth's weather. One can conclude that meteorologists will be able to improve their weather forecasts based on this information.

Which of the following, if true, most seriously weakens the argument above?
(A) Weather forecasts are more detailed today than they were 36 years ago.
(B) Scientists can establish that sunspot activity directly affects the Earth's weather.
(C) Evidence other than sunspot activity has previously enabled meteorologists to forecast the
weather conditions that are predictable on the basis of sunspot activity.
(D) Scientists have not determined why the sunspot activity on the Sun follows an 11-year cycle.
(E) It has been established that predictable wind patterns yield predictable weather patterns.

OA is C. Could someone explain please.

Also is it a good representative of GMAT question style?
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by bubbliiiiiiii » Sat Jun 18, 2011 3:38 am
GMATMadeEasy wrote:After observing the Earth's weather patterns and the 11-year sunspot cycle of the Sun for 36 years, scientists have found that high levels of sunspot activity precede shifts in wind patterns that affect the Earth's weather. One can conclude that meteorologists will be able to improve their weather forecasts based on this information.

Which of the following, if true, most seriously weakens the argument above?
(A) Weather forecasts are more detailed today than they were 36 years ago.

This option states that weather reports are more detailed which may have included more factors in the report and thus, predicting each factor would be difficult. Contender

(B) Scientists can establish that sunspot activity directly affects the Earth's weather.

This one strengthens. - Eliminate

(C) Evidence other than sunspot activity has previously enabled meteorologists to forecast the
weather conditions that are predictable on the basis of sunspot activity.

This statements says that factors *other than* sunspot activity were helpful earlier but not sunspot activity. Thus, contender.

(D) Scientists have not determined why the sunspot activity on the Sun follows an 11-year cycle.

Out of scope.

(E) It has been established that predictable wind patterns yield predictable weather patterns.

Given in passage. out of scope.

OA is C. Could someone explain please.

To be honest, I have choosen A at my first attempt and eventually moved to C.

Also is it a good representative of GMAT question style?

I don't see any pattern evasion.

Lets see what experts and other fellow bloggers got to say. :)
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by sameerballani » Sat Jun 18, 2011 3:54 am
GMATMadeEasy wrote:After observing the Earth's weather patterns and the 11-year sunspot cycle of the Sun for 36 years, scientists have found that high levels of sunspot activity precede shifts in wind patterns that affect the Earth's weather. One can conclude that meteorologists will be able to improve their weather forecasts based on this information.

Which of the following, if true, most seriously weakens the argument above?
(A) Weather forecasts are more detailed today than they were 36 years ago.
(B) Scientists can establish that sunspot activity directly affects the Earth's weather.
(C) Evidence other than sunspot activity has previously enabled meteorologists to forecast the
weather conditions that are predictable on the basis of sunspot activity.
(D) Scientists have not determined why the sunspot activity on the Sun follows an 11-year cycle.
(E) It has been established that predictable wind patterns yield predictable weather patterns.

OA is C. Could someone explain please.

Also is it a good representative of GMAT question style?
Understanding:
Observing sunspotcycle + earths's weather
FOUND: High level of sunspot activity ---(precedes)---> shifts in wind patterns THAT affect earth's weather.
Therefore. now it will help in weather forecasting.
BASICALLY THEY(scientist) FEEL THAT NOW THEY HAVE UNDERSTOOD HOW SUNSPOT CYCLE AFFECTS EARTH's WEATHER (using the intermediate thing: wind patterns)
To weaken , suppose we already had any other thing say X that was affected by sunspot cycle. AND we could forecast the earth's weather by using the behavior of X.
So in that case we already have relationship between sunspot cycle and earth's weather and this study wont' be of any help.
Basically a substitute of shift in wind pattern is already present.

Option C
(C) Evidence other than sunspot activity has previously enabled meteorologists to forecast the weather conditions that are predictable on the basis of sunspot activity.

I hope this helps !!
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by amit2k9 » Sun Jun 19, 2011 10:13 am
C clearly shows that even with the new methodology chances are less for improvement in the weather pattern detection.
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by David@VeritasPrep » Sun Jun 19, 2011 5:46 pm
This one does not seem too different from the GMAT...

This answer is not one that we can necessarily predict -- but it works.

Conclusion: Meteorologists will be able to improve their forecasts based on the knowledge of the sunspots.

Now let's weaken this. Usually you can approach a weaken question by looking for the answer that goes to the opposite of the conclusion.

In this case the opposite of the conclusion is: "meteorologists will NOT be able to improve their forecasts."

Answer Choice C does what we are looking for...if the improvements have already been made then there will not be any more improvements in accuracy based on knowledge of sunspot activity.
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