Assumption

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Assumption

by [email protected] » Fri Jul 12, 2013 2:44 am
A significant number of complex repair jobs carried out by Ace Repairs have to be reworked under the company's warranty. The reworked jobs are invariably satisfactory. When initial repairs are inadequate, therefore, it is not because the mechanics lack competence; rather,there is clearly a level of focused concentration that complex repairs require that is elicited more reliably by rework jobs than by first-time jobs. The argument above assumes which of the following?

A. There is no systematic difference in membership between the group of mechanics who do
first-time jobs and the group of those who do rework jobs.
B. There is no company that successfully competes with Ace Repairs for complex repair jobs.
C. Ace Repairs' warranty is good on first-time jobs but does not cover rework jobs.
D. Ace Repairs does not in any way penalize mechanics who have worked on complex repair jobs
that later had to be reworked.
E. There is no category of repair jobs in which Ace Repairs invariably carries out first-time jobs
satisfactorily.

The official answer is A but isnt A already stated in the argument i.e the bold part. Please help.
Source: — Critical Reasoning |

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by Jim@StratusPrep » Fri Jul 12, 2013 5:28 am
Do you mind me asking the source of this question?
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by [email protected] » Mon Jul 15, 2013 11:41 am
Jim,

This is a GMAT Prep question.

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by [email protected] » Mon Jul 15, 2013 6:09 pm
Hi nishatfarhat87,

In certain GMAT CR prompts, the argument will be made that "one thing" is the "only cause of another"; this is called causality, but that's not really important here. If an author argues that one thing causes another, then one of the built-in assumptions is that everything else "stays the same" (this is sometimes referred to as "all other things being equal"). Answer A states that the mechanics are the same mechanics whether it's a first-time job or a rework job. That would be one of the assumptions behind this prompt, thus it's the correct answer.

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by bharath2787 » Thu Jul 18, 2013 7:54 pm
Assumption is a necessary condition. if A isn't assumed, the reasoning is flawed.
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