Verbal Help -- 2nd Verbal CR 40., not quite sure.

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Hi guys, I got doubts on a CR question, posted below,

Journalist: Well-know businessman Arnold Bergeron has long been popular in the state, and he has often talked about running for governor, but he has never run. However, we have just learned that Bergeron has fulfilled the financial disclosure requirement for candidacy by submitting a detailed list of his current financial holdings to the election commission. So, it is very likely that Bergeron will be a candidate for governor this year.

The answer to which of the following questions would be most useful in evaluating the journalist's argument?

(A) Has anybody else who has fulfilled the financial disclosure requirement for the upcoming election reported greater financial holdings than Bergeron?
(B) Is submitting a list of holdings the only way to fulfill the election commission's financial disclosure requirements?
(C) Did the information recently obtained by the journalist come directly from the election commission?
(D) Have Bergeron's financial holdings increased in value in recent years?
(E) Had Bergeron also fulfilled the financial disclosure requirements for candidacy before any previous gubernatorial elections?

The correct answer is E, but I'm wondeing whether evaluating the history info of Bergeron is essential to the argument here. Even if we know he did file the financial paper and not run before, it doesn't have to mean he would not hang on and run this time. I think what is more crucial here, is that if he also fulfilled any other requirements needed for his candidacy, or has he really set up his mind for this election. Well, in a word, I don't think answer E adequately addresses the critical point here.

Moreover, I'm from asia, I thought filing a financial paper already signals your running for the governor, but according to the OG, you can file this paper, but you can choose to not RUN, so the "RUN" here is actually the later action, and filing the financial paper is not part of the process of "RUN", confused...
Source: — Critical Reasoning |

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by Birottam Dutta » Mon Jul 23, 2012 12:08 am
Firstly, if we get into factual aspects of running for an election in Asia versus non-Asia, then we are missing the point of the question. I would suggest that please do not get into such things.

Secondly, the question here is to arrive at the question, the answer to which would be best in evaluating whether Arnold will be running this time or not.

E is the best possible answer because evaluating history of Arnold will enable us to get an idea (please note that we only need an idea here, exact answer is not asked for). So determining whether he has filed a list of his holdings in previous will help us get an idea of what he will do this year. If he hasn't filed in previous years, then it indicates that he may run for governor this year. If he has filed, then it may be an annual thing and may have nothing to do with running for governor.

Hope this helps.

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by keithyang926 » Mon Jul 23, 2012 12:52 am
Birottam Dutta wrote:Firstly, if we get into factual aspects of running for an election in Asia versus non-Asia, then we are missing the point of the question. I would suggest that please do not get into such things.

Secondly, the question here is to arrive at the question, the answer to which would be best in evaluating whether Arnold will be running this time or not.

E is the best possible answer because evaluating history of Arnold will enable us to get an idea (please note that we only need an idea here, exact answer is not asked for). So determining whether he has filed a list of his holdings in previous will help us get an idea of what he will do this year. If he hasn't filed in previous years, then it indicates that he may run for governor this year. If he has filed, then it may be an annual thing and may have nothing to do with running for governor.

Hope this helps.
Thanks Birottam, I get to understand what you mean, only an idea is needed and E is the best possible answer compared the other four ones.

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by GMATGuruNY » Mon Jul 23, 2012 3:15 am
keithyang926 wrote:Hi guys, I got doubts on a CR question, posted below,

Journalist: Well-know businessman Arnold Bergeron has long been popular in the state, and he has often talked about running for governor, but he has never run. However, we have just learned that Bergeron has fulfilled the financial disclosure requirement for candidacy by submitting a detailed list of his current financial holdings to the election commission. So, it is very likely that Bergeron will be a candidate for governor this year.

The answer to which of the following questions would be most useful in evaluating the journalist's argument?

(A) Has anybody else who has fulfilled the financial disclosure requirement for the upcoming election reported greater financial holdings than Bergeron?
(B) Is submitting a list of holdings the only way to fulfill the election commission's financial disclosure requirements?
(C) Did the information recently obtained by the journalist come directly from the election commission?
(D) Have Bergeron's financial holdings increased in value in recent years?
(E) Had Bergeron also fulfilled the financial disclosure requirements for candidacy before any previous gubernatorial elections?
This CR links FULFILLING THE FINANCIAL DISCLOSURE REQUIREMENTS to RUNNING FOR GOVERNOR.
The correct answer must STRENGTHEN or WEAKEN this link.
When the answer choices are phrased as questions, rephrase them as STATEMENTS.

Answer choice E, rephrased: Before previous gubernatorial elections, Bergeron had also fulfilled the financial disclosure requirements for candidacy.
Since Bergeron did not run for governor in these previous elections, this answer choice BREAKS THE LINK between fulfilling the financial disclosure requirements and running for governor.

The correct answer is E.
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by henryjejo » Mon Jul 23, 2012 7:05 pm
This is something that I learnt few days back...Its applicable for "Evaluate the Argument" type questions.(Source Powerscore)

Steps: Use Yes/No on the "answer choices" and check whether it strengthens or hurts the argument. If "Yes" strengthens, and "No" hurts the argument, the answer choice is correct. If "Yes/No" has not effect, the answer choice is incorrect.

Based on the question, I filtered down to (B) & (E). Now using the above mentioned approach, Choice(E) will be strengthened, if the answer is "Yes" and hurt when the answer is "No". On the other hand, Answer choice(B) is not weakened if the answer is "No". Thus the correct choice is Answer (E).

Refer Powerscore Critical reasoning bible -> Evaluate the Argument Type questions.