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Weaken by Causation, the governor Verdant argument... [#permalink]
 20 Aug 2005, 16:05
While governor Verdant has been in office, the state’s budget has increased by an average of 6 percent each year. While the previous governor was in office, the state’s budget increased by an average of 11 and a half percent each year. Obviously, the austere budgets during governor Verdant’s term have caused the slowdown in the growth in state spending.
Which of the following, if true, would most seriously weaken the conclusion drawn above?
(A) The rate of inflation in the state averaged 10 percent each year during the previous governor’s term in office and 3 percent each year during Verdant’s term.
(B) Both federal and state income tax rates have been lowered considerably during Verdant’s term in office.
(C) In each year of Verdant’s term in office, the state’s budget has shown some increase in spending over the previous year.
(D) During Verdant’s term in office, the state has either discontinued or begun to charge private citizens for numerous services that the state offered free to citizens during the previous governor’s term
(E) During the previous governor’s term in office, the state introduced several so-called ‘austerity’ budgets intended to reduce the growth in state spending.
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It should be E; it talks about austerity budgets introduced during the previous governor's term
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OA should be A.
Explaination: The rate of inlation in the state averaged 10 percent each year during the previous governor's term. So effectively, State spending in his tenure was 1.5 percent on an average.
The rate of inlation in the state averaged 6 percent each year during the verdant's term. So effectively, State spending in his tenure was 3 percent on an average, which is more than the state spending in previous governor's term.
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Vipin Gupta
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I'm gonna go with E.
smarty_cry, although I agree with your reasoning:
1) We do not know if the figures quoted in the passage are nominal or real values. I'm not sure we can assume they are nominal.
2) We are looking to undermine the conclusion that Verdant's policy caused the slowdown. As I understand the passage, the slowdown is a fact and we are questioning its cause, not its existence.
E suggests that the previous governor might be responsible for the slowdown, so the conclusion in the passage is undermined.
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If the austery budgets during the previous governor term's are the cause of the economy slowdown, than it is not true that the austere budgets during governor verdant's have caused the slowdown. I will go for E.
but, it looks like the OA is A???
I don't think my reasoning is right here...
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mbassmbass04 wrote: If the austery budgets during the previous governor term's are the cause of the economy slowdown, than it is not true that the austere budgets during governor verdant's have caused the slowdown. I will go for E.
but, it looks like the OA is A???
I don't think my reasoning is right here...
If the OA is A, then smarty_cry got the right explanation.
Nevertheless, it's not a good question, because you have to assume that the quoted growth figures are in nominal terms (unadjusted for inflation) to arrive at A as the correct answer.
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mbassmbass04 wrote: If the austery budgets during the previous governor term's are the cause of the economy slowdown, than it is not true that the austere budgets during governor verdant's have caused the slowdown. I will go for E.
but, it looks like the OA is A???
I don't think my reasoning is right here...
The austerity budgets in previous government term might not have had the same scale (or enforced as vigorously) as the ones in Verdant's term. Is that possible ? But anyway, my reasoning is not supported by the paragraph.
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Re: Weaken by Causation, the governor Verdant argument... [#permalink]
21 Aug 2005, 22:12
mbassmbass04 wrote: While governor Verdant has been in office, the state’s budget has increased by an average of 6 percent each year. While the previous governor was in office, the state’s budget increased by an average of 11 and a half percent each year. Obviously, the austere budgets during governor Verdant’s term have caused the slowdown in the growth in state spending.
Which of the following, if true, would most seriously weaken the conclusion drawn above?
(A) The rate of inflation in the state averaged 10 percent each year during the previous governor’s term in office and 3 percent each year during Verdant’s term.
(E) During the previous governor’s term in office, the state introduced several so-called ‘austerity’ budgets intended to reduce the growth in state spending.
E actually strengthen the argument. it says ‘austerity’ budgets intended to reduce the growth in state spending where as as A says the rate of increase/decrease in budget is caused by inflation, not by the austere budgets.
So A shuld be the answer.
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Himalaya,
I don't agree with you that E strenghten the argument, because the argument is focusing on the actual governor Verdant's term, while E refers to the previous governor's term...
OA is still A from V-study Material, it is an Old official GMAT question...
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