HavishSingh wrote:
please tell me why option d is not correct..........
Hello,
HavishSingh. This is a strangely phrased passage, and I doubt it would appear on the GMAT™ as such, but the correct answer is the only one supported by the passage. In an effort to assist you and the larger community, I will offer a full analysis.
Quote:
My neighbor's dogs bark and howl every time their owner lets them outside. My CPA told me that dogs tend to bark and howl when they see birds resting in the top branches of their favorite trees. I personally believe they bark and howl because they enjoy disrupting my meditations.
Which of the following can be inferred from the preceding passage?
The passage is straightforward, delivering information clearly, line by line.
- The neighbor's dogs bark and howl every time they are outside (line one)
- The CPA mentioned a tendency in dogs that can cause barking and howling (line two)
- The first-person speaker shares a personal belief: the dogs take pleasure in disrupting my meditations (line three)
The belief at the end seems wayward, to say the least—how could dogs possibly know when the speaker was meditating? Still, we have to take the information in the passage at face value. What do the answer choices have in store for us?
Quote:
A. The dogs must be abused by their owners.
This could be true, but at the same time, the owners could be letting the dogs outside in an act of humaneness. Perhaps the dogs need to go to the bathroom or the owners appreciate their need to run around outside. This
must is too strong, not to mention that any abuse directed at the dogs is purely speculative.
Quote:
B. The dogs' owners do not make efforts to stop the dogs from barking and howling.
I could see people falling for this answer choice through association. If a problem with noise persists, it must be because the owners of the dogs are negligent. However, just as children can be rowdy even when parents seek to keep them well behaved, dogs might bark and howl, even if their owners do make efforts to curb their barking and howling. (The owners might think that muzzling the animals would be inhumane, for all we know.)
Quote:
C. There are many pedestrians who walk by this neighbor's house, and the dogs are starving for attention.
First, we cannot point to anything in the passage to inform our decision on just how many
pedestrians may be passing by, and second, we are in no position to comment on what the dogs may be feeling, in terms of wanting
attention. (Also, I am pretty sure the correct way of expressing the notion is to say that the dogs
are starved for attention, not
are starving.)
Quote:
D. The dogs frequently see birds in the tops of their favorite trees.
The CPA might agree, but such speculation is not supported as a logical inference from the information found in the passage as a whole. How do we know how
frequently the dogs are outside making noise?
Quote:
E. The dogs will bark and howl at 3 a.m. if they are outside at that time.
This is exactly right. The first line of the passage states that the dogs
bark and howl every time their owner lets them outside, so whether it is noon or 3 a.m., we can reasonably infer that if the dogs are outside, they will be barking and howling.
Perhaps the question makes more sense now. Good luck with your studies.
- Andrew
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