During the recent spate of brushfires in the Southwest,

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During the recent spate of brushfires in the Southwest, [#permalink]

03 Aug 2006, 12:50

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During the recent spate of brushfires in the Southwest, homeowners who lived near affected areas were advised to douse their roofs with water to prevent their houses from catching fire, before evacuating the area. After the fires were brought under control and the homeowners were allowed to return to the area, many who doused their roofs discovered significant fire damage to their houses. Clearly, then, dousing their roofs was a wasted effort.

Which of the following, if true, would most weaken the conclusion above?

A)The houses of owners who did not douse the roofs with water suffered appreciably more fire damage than did those of owners who did douse the roofs with water.

B)Not all homeowners who doused their roofs did so to the same extent.

C)The fire insurance rates for those who doused their roofs did not increase after the fire.

D)The houses that suffered the least damage were those in which the owners remained and continuously doused the roofs.

E)Most of the homeowners who doused their roofs had been through a brushfire evacuation before.

Please provide the reasons for picking a particular answer.
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03 Aug 2006, 12:55

A

The argument is that "even though the houses were doused with water, the damage was extensive. Hence it was not useful to douse the house with water".

To weaken the argument, we have to find something that would suggest that dousing helped.

Answer choice A, says that "people who doused their house with water had significantly less damage than others who didn't"

So the answer choice is A
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Re: CR: dousing the roof [#permalink]

03 Aug 2006, 14:15

Clearly A

C: Dousing was a wasted effort.

If A is true then dousing was beneficial. Therefore it was not a wasted effort.

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03 Aug 2006, 14:41

A

Conclusion: Dousing roofs was a wasted effort.

Premise: People who doused their roofs discovered significant fire damage to their houses.

How can be provide an evidence that undermines the premise and hence conclusion.

A is doing that. Eventhough houses that were doused had fire damage but houses that were not doused were even more damaged. It means dousing was not a waste of effort.
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03 Aug 2006, 14:43

I think this one is fairly straightforwad. A is the only choice that makes sense.

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03 Aug 2006, 17:42

and how abt D?

D -
"The houses that suffered the least damage were those in which the owners remained and continuously doused the roofs"

would this not be a better answer?
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03 Aug 2006, 20:03

shoonya wrote:

and how abt D?

D -
"The houses that suffered the least damage were those in which the owners remained and continuously doused the roofs"

would this not be a better answer?

Seems out of scope.

See the bold part:
During the recent spate of brushfires in the Southwest, homeowners who lived near affected areas were advised to douse their roofs with water to prevent their houses from catching fire, before evacuating the area. After the fires were brought under control and the homeowners were allowed to return to the area, many who doused their roofs discovered significant fire damage to their houses. Clearly, then, dousing their roofs was a wasted effort.

So we are not that much concerned about people who remained in their houses.
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03 Aug 2006, 22:22

Clear winner A.

Conclusion: dousing the roofs was an wasted effort.

Weaken: Those who didnot didnot douse their roofs suffered more losses than those who did.

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04 Aug 2006, 00:13

A here.

Will go with the above explanations.
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04 Aug 2006, 03:21

Yup Clear A....

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06 Aug 2006, 04:50

Straight A.

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21 Aug 2006, 04:08

Yes, (A). Those who doused their rooves were spared the heaviest damage. D doesn`t goes out of scope because those homeowners never even evacuated in the forst place.

[#permalink] 21 Aug 2006, 04:08

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