Critical Reasoning

Newspaper editorial:


In an attempt to reduce the crime rate, the governor is getting tough on criminals and making prison conditions harsher. Part of this effort has been to deny inmates the access they formerly had to college-level courses. However, this action is clearly counter to the governor's ultimate goal, since after being released form prison, inmates who had taken such courses committed far fewer crimes overall than other inmates.


Which of the following is an assumption on which the argument depends?

A. Not being able to take college-level courses while in prison is unlikely to deter anyone from a crime that he or she might otherwise have committed.

B. Former inmates are no more likely to commit crimes than are members of the general population.

C. The group of inmates who chose to take college-level courses were not already less likely than other inmates to commit crimes after being released.

D. Taking high school level courses in prison has less effect on an inmate's subsequent behavior than taking college-level courses does.

E. The governor's ultimate goal actually is to gain popularity by convincing people that something effective is being done about crime.

Ron and TestLuv said that this question has two right options A n C..
N u shud not study this question..
Later I found that this one is from GMAT Prep and correct answer is I guess A.. But I am not sure..
I went for A but I have no reason to eliminate option C..

IMO C

it states that the cause of the inmates (who took courses) not indulging in crimes again is the courses and not instead some other factor (they were already of this nature) - the education did nth

this is the assumption when the argument says - hey, dun take away the courses, coz the courses r makin the criminals better ppl.... (assumption - they were not good ppl anyway when they got sent to prison)


OA??

IMO A

The conclusion : this action is clearly counter to the governor's ultimate goal

Choice A is confusing because of the double negatives

Not being able to take college-level courses while in prison is unlikely to deter anyone from a crime that he or she might otherwise have committed.

If you remove the double negatives, this sentence can be read as

Being able to take college-level courses while in prison is likely to deter anyone from a crime that he or she might otherwise have committed.

IMO A
the only reason that I can think of is that
option C says less likely than other criminal whereas question says inmates who had taken such courses committed far fewer crimes overall than other inmates.
C. The group of inmates who chose to take college-level courses were not already less likely than other inmates to commit crimes after being released.

So, the wording of the choice is bit-off then what is said in the question. That is , 'far fewer' is much stronger word then 'less likely'.

I believe option A weakens the argument. Explanation: Not being able to attend the college-level course will not deter anyone from committing the crime implies the course has no effect. And thus this will not be counter-effective as the conclusion says.

IMO C.

IMO:C What is OA?

Is it C..

I agree with sandipsharma1. IMO C
What's the OA?

A should be the answer because if we apply negation technique then it weakens the argument.

A Not being able to take college-level courses while in prison is unlikely to deter anyone from a crime that he or she might otherwise have committed

After Negation:

Being able to take college-level courses while in prison is unlikely to deter anyone from a crime that he or she might otherwise have committed, i.e., [color=green][b][i]taking courses is unlikely to deter from a crime[/i][/b][/color].

Ders conflict between OAs...
Testluv had said that both a n c cud b d answers..
Bot OA frm d source where i looked up this prob is A...

But i also read that this is a Gmat prepproblem..

+1 for C. This is a typical type of GMAT critical reasoning question, the reverse cause and effect.

I would go for C. Can someone please PM an expert for this?

Thanks.