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Negation technique - Assumption qns

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Negation technique - Assumption qns

by crimson2283 » Tue Feb 08, 2011 7:29 pm
I have trouble negating answer choices while solving assumption questions. Can somebody please help?
I get confused if the negation should happen once or twice?

For eg, how would you negate the below answer choices?

Many physicians generally oppose insurance company regulations that, in order to reduce costs, limit the use of laboratory tests.
Many patients who might benefit from the uncovered laboratory tests do not have any form of health insurance.

I would negate it as - Some physicians generally oppose insurance company regulations that, in order to reduce costs, limit the use of laboratory tests.

and

Some patients who might benefit from the uncovered laboratory tests do not have any form of health insurance.

Also, if experts reply to this post, it would be great if you could share a few examples, perhaps you could share a list of words? I am sure most of us have trouble with negation :)
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by ankur.agrawal » Tue Feb 08, 2011 8:49 pm
crimson2283 wrote:I have trouble negating answer choices while solving assumption questions. Can somebody please help?
I get confused if the negation should happen once or twice?

For eg, how would you negate the below answer choices?

Many physicians generally oppose insurance company regulations that, in order to reduce costs, limit the use of laboratory tests.
Many patients who might benefit from the uncovered laboratory tests do not have any form of health insurance.

I would negate it as - Some physicians generally oppose insurance company regulations that, in order to reduce costs, limit the use of laboratory tests.

and

Some patients who might benefit from the uncovered laboratory tests do not have any form of health insurance.

Also, if experts reply to this post, it would be great if you could share a few examples, perhaps you could share a list of words? I am sure most of us have trouble with negation :)
Basically:

Negation Largely consists of taking a "not" out of a sentence when one is present, or vice versa.

So in your 2nd Sentence which reads as follows:

Many patients who might benefit from the uncovered laboratory tests do not have any form of health insurance.

We can remove "not" to convert the sentence as below

2)Many patients who might benefit from the uncovered laboratory tests do have some form of health insurance.

Now for the first question we cant see "not". Going with the definition of Logical opposite which states " The logical opposite is the statement requiring the least amount of work to negate the original statement, I can negate the first statement as :

Many physicians rarely oppose insurance company regulations that, in order to reduce costs, limit the use of laboratory tests.

Rarely because it is just sufficient to negate "generally" . Do not oppose will be polar opposite.

Experts can u confirm on whether my logic is correct or not.
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by mundasingh123 » Tue Feb 08, 2011 11:42 pm
I am not an Expert
Even rarely is a polar opposite
I Seek Explanations Not Answers
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by crimson2283 » Wed Feb 09, 2011 7:44 am
Experts, please suggest. Most of us are having trouble with the negation technique.
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by Brian@VeritasPrep » Wed Feb 09, 2011 10:10 am
Hey guys,

Great thread! Assumption negation isn't an exact science, so you may need to try more than once to find a negation that fully clicks, but the two major ways to negate a sentence are:

1) Negate a universal or particular modifier in the dominant clause of a sentence:

All mammals have lungs ---> NOT ALL mammals have lungs
Some birds cannot fly ---> NO birds cannot fly

In the presence of modifiers like "some", "all", "none", "never", "not all", you'll want to negate that modifier to take the logical opposite.


2) Negate the verb in the dominant clause of the sentence:

Many physicians generally oppose insurance company regulations --> Many physicians generally DO NOT oppose insurance company regulations

Note here that everything in your initial sentence after the word "that" is a dependent clause...the dominant clause of the sentence is that first part, so that's where you'd negate. Note also that "many" doesn't have a direct logical opposite (whereas "some" would go to "none"), so you probably won't have much luck trying to negate "many", and that's why you'll then want to move on to the verb and try to negate there.



Now, the benefit is that when the correct answer is negated, it should pretty obviously violate the conclusion, so that's why even if you have to try to negate at more than one point in a particular answer choice it's not a huge problem. If one of those negations directly undermines the conclusion, that's your answer...
Brian Galvin
GMAT Instructor
Chief Academic Officer
Veritas Prep

Looking for GMAT practice questions? Try out the Veritas Prep Question Bank. Learn More.
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by crimson2283 » Wed Feb 09, 2011 10:30 am
Thank you so much for the brilliant explanation Brian :)
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