ZZZ: Conclusion CR

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ZZZ: Conclusion CR

by gmatusa2010 » Fri Aug 13, 2010 9:06 pm
I'm having trouble with Conclusion questions. It always comes down to two and I always pick the wrong one. Can someone please help show how you approach these questions and how you can differentiate the nuances that lead to the right answer. Here is an example below:


More women than men suffer from Alzheimer's- a disease that is most commonly contracted by elderly persons. This discrepancy has often been attributed to women's longer life span, but this theory may be wrong. A recent study has shown that prescribing estrogen to women after menopause, when estrogen production in the body deceases, may prevent them from developing the disease. Men's supply of testosterone may help safeguard them against Alzheimer's disease because much of it is converted by the body to estrogen, the testosterone levels stay relatively stable into old age.

Which of the following most accurately expresses the main conclusion of the argument?


A) A decrease in estrogen, rather than longer life span, may explain the higher occurrence of Alzheimer's disease in women relative to men.

D) The conversion of testosterone into estrogen may help safeguard men from Alzheimer's disease.

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by reply2spg » Fri Aug 13, 2010 9:34 pm
It is D

See A. I am marking it in red.

Check that passage and A talks totally opposite

What is OA?
gmatusa2010 wrote:I'm having trouble with Conclusion questions. It always comes down to two and I always pick the wrong one. Can someone please help show how you approach these questions and how you can differentiate the nuances that lead to the right answer. Here is an example below:


More women than men suffer from Alzheimer's- a disease that is most commonly contracted by elderly persons. This discrepancy has often been attributed to women's longer life span, but this theory may be wrong. A recent study has shown that prescribing estrogen to women after menopause, when estrogen production in the body deceases, may prevent them from developing the disease. Men's supply of testosterone may help safeguard them against Alzheimer's disease because much of it is converted by the body to estrogen, the testosterone levels stay relatively stable into old age.

Which of the following most accurately expresses the main conclusion of the argument?


A) A decrease in estrogen, rather than longer life span, may explain the higher occurrence of Alzheimer's disease in women relative to men.

D) The conversion of testosterone into estrogen may help safeguard men from Alzheimer's disease.
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by gmatusa2010 » Fri Aug 13, 2010 9:43 pm
I think you forgot the part that says "this theory is wrong."

reply2spg wrote:It is D

See A. I am marking it in red.

Check that passage and A talks totally opposite

What is OA?
gmatusa2010 wrote:I'm having trouble with Conclusion questions. It always comes down to two and I always pick the wrong one. Can someone please help show how you approach these questions and how you can differentiate the nuances that lead to the right answer. Here is an example below:


More women than men suffer from Alzheimer's- a disease that is most commonly contracted by elderly persons. This discrepancy has often been attributed to women's longer life span, but this theory may be wrong. A recent study has shown that prescribing estrogen to women after menopause, when estrogen production in the body deceases, may prevent them from developing the disease. Men's supply of testosterone may help safeguard them against Alzheimer's disease because much of it is converted by the body to estrogen, the testosterone levels stay relatively stable into old age.

Which of the following most accurately expresses the main conclusion of the argument?


A) A decrease in estrogen, rather than longer life span, may explain the higher occurrence of Alzheimer's disease in women relative to men.

D) The conversion of testosterone into estrogen may help safeguard men from Alzheimer's disease.

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by diebeatsthegmat » Fri Aug 13, 2010 11:56 pm
reply2spg wrote:It is D

See A. I am marking it in red.

Check that passage and A talks totally opposite

What is OA?
gmatusa2010 wrote:I'm having trouble with Conclusion questions. It always comes down to two and I always pick the wrong one. Can someone please help show how you approach these questions and how you can differentiate the nuances that lead to the right answer. Here is an example below:


More women than men suffer from Alzheimer's- a disease that is most commonly contracted by elderly persons. This discrepancy has often been attributed to women's longer life span, but this theory may be wrong. A recent study has shown that prescribing estrogen to women after menopause, when estrogen production in the body deceases, may prevent them from developing the disease. Men's supply of testosterone may help safeguard them against Alzheimer's disease because much of it is converted by the body to estrogen, the testosterone levels stay relatively stable into old age.

Which of the following most accurately expresses the main conclusion of the argument?


A) A decrease in estrogen, rather than longer life span, may explain the higher occurrence of Alzheimer's disease in women relative to men.

D) The conversion of testosterone into estrogen may help safeguard men from Alzheimer's disease.
is that A the answer?

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by adi_800 » Sat Aug 14, 2010 9:08 am
I too think A is right..
reply2spg missed out the theory is wrong part...
N argument is more dedicated to women dan men. n D talks about men..So, can not be the main conclusion of the argument..

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by reply2spg » Sat Aug 14, 2010 9:53 am
Sorry for the late reply. What I mean to say that theory that shows 'This discrepancy has often been attributed to women's longer life span', may be wrong, but it is not proved to be wrong and if you see other sentence in red that says decrease of estrogen prevent disease development. Author is trying to say that these may be wrong but nowhere in the passage it is proved that it is wrong. In that case theory is still holding correct. If you read D carefully, D talks exactly opposite of what these two statements say.

Remember that theory may be wrong but it is not proved wrong. Hope you understand what I mean to say.
gmatusa2010 wrote:I think you forgot the part that says "this theory is wrong."

reply2spg wrote:It is D

See A. I am marking it in red.

Check that passage and A talks totally opposite

What is OA?
gmatusa2010 wrote:I'm having trouble with Conclusion questions. It always comes down to two and I always pick the wrong one. Can someone please help show how you approach these questions and how you can differentiate the nuances that lead to the right answer. Here is an example below:


More women than men suffer from Alzheimer's- a disease that is most commonly contracted by elderly persons. This discrepancy has often been attributed to women's longer life span, but this theory may be wrong. A recent study has shown that prescribing estrogen to women after menopause, when estrogen production in the body deceases, may prevent them from developing the disease. Men's supply of testosterone may help safeguard them against Alzheimer's disease because much of it is converted by the body to estrogen, the testosterone levels stay relatively stable into old age.

Which of the following most accurately expresses the main conclusion of the argument?


A) A decrease in estrogen, rather than longer life span, may explain the higher occurrence of Alzheimer's disease in women relative to men.

D) The conversion of testosterone into estrogen may help safeguard men from Alzheimer's disease.
Sudhanshu
(have lot of things to learn from all of you)

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by FightWithGMAT » Sat Aug 14, 2010 2:40 pm
gmatusa2010 wrote:I'm having trouble with Conclusion questions. It always comes down to two and I always pick the wrong one. Can someone please help show how you approach these questions and how you can differentiate the nuances that lead to the right answer. Here is an example below:


More women than men suffer from Alzheimer's- a disease that is most commonly contracted by elderly persons. This discrepancy has often been attributed to women's longer life span, but this theory may be wrong. A recent study has shown that prescribing estrogen to women after menopause, when estrogen production in the body deceases, may prevent them from developing the disease. Men's supply of testosterone may help safeguard them against Alzheimer's disease because much of it is converted by the body to estrogen, the testosterone levels stay relatively stable into old age.

Which of the following most accurately expresses the main conclusion of the argument?


A) A decrease in estrogen, rather than longer life span, may explain the higher occurrence of Alzheimer's disease in women relative to men.

D) The conversion of testosterone into estrogen may help safeguard men from Alzheimer's disease.
I do not find anything so convoluted that there is a problem in finding the author's conclusion.

Author's conclusion is that higher occurrence of the disease in women MAY NOT be attributed to their longer life span.
Then the author talks about a study...why???? to try to convince that lower levels of estrogen may be the explanation for the higher occurrence of the disease in women. He also maintains that the estrogen level in men remains at appropriate level.

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by gmatusa2010 » Sat Aug 14, 2010 10:34 pm
false alarm. Answer is indeed. A. That's what I put in the beginning but the answer said D. This is straight out of the LSAT book and its wrong. I looked up the official answer explanation by Kaplan and it said A. I've caught a couple of misprints so this is perphaps another one. I still can't wrap my head around D. reply2sg, IMHO, I don't see how A or D is the opposite of anything said in the original passage. Both are correct inferences, but only A is the main conclusion because it captures the scope properly. Here's the exp. I found: (Kaplan discussion)

As you read the stimulus, the words "...but this theory may be wrong" should jump out as an as-
sertion that requires supporting evidence. The issue is why more women than men get Alzheimer's; the
possibly-wrong theory is that women live longer; and the theory the author likes is estrogen-based: Elderly
women lack it, while elderly men possess it. Only (A) reflects the specific point at issue and the author's
preference for an estrogen-based explanation.
(B) ignores the female/male comparison that is at the heart of the stimulus, while (C), (D), and
(E) each focus on one gender only.

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by e-GMAT » Sun Aug 15, 2010 6:49 am
The find the conclusion questions generally follow a couple of principles:

1. Conclusions are supported by all (or most of) the evidence in the passage. Hence, while selecting an answer, ensure that that the answer choice talks about multiple premises.

2. The answer usually is "not a restatement of" a sentence from the passage.

I believe that A is the correct. Here's why!!

A) It explains the cause of higher occurrence of Alzheimer's disease while refuting a long held belief.
This is what the passage intends to do. The statement regarding men is simply a secondary premise to explain why men don't suffer from the disease.

D) This is simply a restatement of one of the premises in the passage. Hence it cannot be the conclusion.

I hope that this helps!!