Quote:
The imposition of quotas limiting imported steel will not help the big American steel mills. In fact, the quotas will help “mini-mills” flourish in the United States. Those small domestic mills will take more business from the big Americal steel mills than would have been taken by the foreign steel mills in the absence of quotas.
Which of the following, if true, would cast the most serious doubt on the claim made in the last sentence above?
(A) Quality rather than price is a major factor in determining the type of steel to be used for a particular application.
(B) Foreign steel mills have long produced grades of steel comparable in quality to the steel produced by the big American mills.
(C) American quotas on imported goods have often induced other countries to impose similar quotas on American goods.
(D) Domestic “mini-mills” consistently produce better grades of steel than do the big American mills.
(E) Domestic “mini-mills” produce low-volume, specialized types of steels that are not produced by the big American steel mills.
sunny91 wrote:
I have an issue with option E- Because the author does not say mini-mills can ONLY produce that kind of produce, this leaves us to evaluate the consideration that can mini-mills produce the production that big-mills produce? If yes, then we are not able to weaken the argument. Also, option E makes sense if we say"Those small domestic mills will take more business from the big American steel mills." However, we have the part "than would have been taken by the foreign steel mills in the absence of quotas." So, how does this make sense in line of thinking option E as the answer. Also, why is B wrong.
Let's review the author's reasoning:
- In the absence of the quotas, foreign steel mills (FSM) will take SOME business from big American steel mills (BASM).
- With the quotas, small domestic mills (SDM) will take an even greater amount of business from big American steel mills.
- Therefore, the imposition of quotas limiting imported steel will NOT help the big American steel mills and will help “mini-mills” flourish in the United States.
So for whatever reason, the author believes that the quotas will allow smaller domestic mills to take a bigger chunk of business from the big American mills.
Quote:
(B) Foreign steel mills have long produced grades of steel comparable in quality to the steel produced by the big American mills.
We are trying to evaluate the claim made in the last sentence. In order to do so, we need to compare the amount of business taken by FSM without quotas to the amount of business taken by SDM with quotas. Choice (B) simply tells us
why foreign steel mills have been able to take some of the business from big American mills (they make a similar product). But what will happen when the quotas are introduced? Will SDM take an even greater chunk of business from BASM? Choice (B) does not help us answer that question or evaluate the author's claim. Eliminate (B).
Quote:
(E) Domestic “mini-mills” produce low-volume, specialized types of steels that are not produced by the big American steel mills.
Yes, it is true that SDM
might also make products similar to those produced by BASM. But remember that we are looking for an answer that "would cast the
most serious doubt on the claim made in the last sentence above." It doesn't have to PROVE that the claim is not correct, but it has to cast serious doubt.
Going back to the author's reasoning... currently, FSM take some business from BASM. If quotas are introduced, maybe it will be better for BASM since they won't have to deal with the competition from FSM. However, according to the author, if the quotas are introduced, BASM will face even GREATER competition from SDM. So, great, we've dealt with the foreign competition but now we are worse off than before because we have new and greater competition from SDM.
But what if SDM and BASM make different products? In that case, it is LESS LIKELY that the SDM will complete with BASM once the quotas are introduced. Sure, choice (E) doesn't say that SDM ONLY produces "low-volume, specialized types of steels," but it certainly implies that SDM focuses on a different type of product. Even though this doesn't DISPROVE the author's claim, it casts some serious doubt, and we would want more information to evaluate the claim.
All of the other choices can be eliminated, and (E) is the best answer.
I hope that helps!
_________________
GMAT/GRE/EA tutors @
www.gmatninja.com (
hiring!) |
YouTube |
Articles |
IG Beginners' Guides:
RC |
CR |
SC |
Complete Resource Compilations:
RC |
CR |
SC YouTube LIVE webinars:
all videos by topic +
24-hour marathon for UkraineQuestion Explanation Collections:
RC |
CR |
SC