A cars antitheft alarm tat sounds in the middle of the night in a cro

Question

A car’s antitheft alarm tat sounds in the middle of the night in a crowded city neighborhood may stop an attempted car theft. On the other hand, the alarm might signal only a fault in the device, or a response to some harmless contact, such as a tree branch brushing the car. But whatever the cause, the sleep of many people in the neighborhood is disturbed. Out of consideration for others, people who have these antitheft alarms on their cars should deactivate them when they park in crowded city neighborhoods at night.

Which one of the following, if assumed by the author of the passage, would allow her properly to draw her conclusion that the owners of alarm-equipped cars should deactivate the alarms when parking in crowded city neighborhoods at night?

(A) The inconvenience of false alarms is small price to pay for the security of a neighborhood.

(B) In most cases when a car alarm sounds at night, it is a false alarm.

(C) Allowing the residents of a crowded city neighborhood to sleep undisturbed is more important than preventing car theft.

(D) People who equip their cars with antitheft alarms are generally inconsiderate of others.

(E) The sounding of car antitheft alarms during the daytime does not disturb the residents of crowded city neighborhoods.

eakabuah · Accepted Answer

Let's analyze the argument.

The author of this argument recommends that people who have antitheft alarms on their cars should deactivate them when they park in crowded city neighborhoods at night. To appropriately get the right assumption, we need to understand why the feels that the antitheft alarms should be deactivated. Clearly, the author is more concerned about the disturbance that these alarms cause in the neighborhood than the theft of the car. Why do I think so? Look at the first premise, the author actually implies that the sound of an alarm on a car does not necessarily mean that the thief would be deterred. An alarm may   stop an attempted car theft. So, kind of sarcastically, the author is asking, why then do you even leave the alarms on in the first place? Apart from this possibility that when the alarm genuinely goes off as a result of a genuine attempt of car theft, where the alarm might not even ward off the thief, these alarms are subject to many false alarms. The alarm can go off falsely through a harmless contact, a tree branch touching the car, or an internal fault within the alarm system. The author simply has had enough of the disturbance. So clearly, he/she ranks the nuisance of alarms in the night as worse than the theft of the car. He/she values the peace in the neighborhood. Based on the aforementioned, what could possibly be an assumption of this argument?

This option actually weakens the argument. Hence incorrect. If this is true, then the author may have to reconsider his/her argument again.

This is close, but as per the reasoning above, this argument cares little about whether an alarm is false or not. So this cannot be an assumption of the argument above. If the argument had probably shown some concern about the theft of the car and suggested that alarms that genuinely sound at night due to an attempt to steal the car are tolerable, then this would suffice as the assumption. At best, B is a strengthener. Most means more than 50% of the time. The opposite of most is not more than 50% of the time, meaning we can have 49.9% of the time that car alarms sound is false. What difference does this make to the argument? Very little. C is a much better assumption for this argument.

This is exactly what the author is concerned about. This is the last piece of the puzzle needed to make the argument above airtight. Because if allowing residents of a crowded city neighborhood to sleep undisturbed is not more important than preventing car theft, the argument above will fall apart. So this must be the necessary assumption of this argument.

D is tricky but focus on the meaning. Generally means most of the time, more than 50% of the time. So negating this means not more than 50% of the time. So the question is what difference does it make for people are not inconsiderate of others 49.9% of the time compared to say when they are inconsiderate to others 50.1% of the time. The truth is we are not trying to strengthen the argument, but we are interested in an assumption. A statement that makes the argument above airtight. D, like B, is a potential strengthener of the argument, but not necessarily an assumption. One has to be mindful of these modifying words when dealing with assumptions. Compared to C, D does not stand a chance since C does a much better job by clearly stating that  allowing residents in a crowded neighborhood is more important than preventing a car theft .

Completely irrelevant to the argument above.

adkikani  this is what I think about the argument above. I hope it is somehow helpful.

adkikani · Answer

VeritasKarishma   MentorTutoring   eakabuah

I treated this as an assumption q.
 
The highlighted portion is my premise for conclusion: to deactivate alarms while parking in crowded city at night.

If I negate this: People who equip their cars with antitheft alarms are sometimes inconsiderate of others.
OR
People who equip their cars with antitheft alarms are  sometimes  considerate of others.
I chose this option since if people are not considering others sleep to be disturbed as an unkind act, they shall not de-activate the alarm.
Can you advise if I am correct?

yashikaaggarwal · Answer

I think the OA can be B. As the author was also trying to conclude that the alarm do blares unnessaery attention even on a pity scratch from tree branch and something. And if its a crowded neighborhood. It's definite to have many alarm blares. So the car owners should deactivate their car alarms as there are many cases for fake alarming in crowded area.

Posted from my mobile device

nightblade354 · Answer

Just so people are aware, this is a justify question; this is not an assumption question! The negation technique will not work on this type of question.

KarishmaB · Answer

Just to elaborate a bit on this - An assumption, as we know in GMAT, is a missing necessary premise.

But when you are asked to pick a statement that would allow to properly draw the conclusion, you are looking for a missing "sufficient" premise. 
Something that will establish the conclusion. It is not necessary but it is sufficient. This is an LSAT question type.

nightblade354 · Answer

You are absolutely correct! And this is great clarification.

arshinco · Answer

yes it was helpfull. thanks for advise about car alarm.

nuevamateo20 · Answer

VeritasKarishma ,  nightblade354  - Thank you for your help. Can I please ask for additional clarification on ths question? If we were asked to identify the assumption of the argument in this question, how would the answer differ? Thanks!

gmat1393 · Answer

nightblade354

Please change the tag from conclusion to Assumption.

nightblade354 · Answer

I appreciate you pointing this out, but it isn't an assumption question per my statement above!

unraveled · Answer

A car’s antitheft alarm tat sounds in the middle of the night in a crowded city neighborhood may stop an attempted car theft. On the other hand, the alarm might signal only a fault in the device, or a response to some harmless contact, such as a tree branch brushing the car. But whatever the cause, the sleep of many people in the neighborhood is disturbed.  Out of consideration for others, people who have these antitheft alarms on their cars should deactivate them when they park in crowded city neighborhoods at night.

Which one of the following, if assumed by the author of the passage, would allow her properly to draw her conclusion that the owners of alarm-equipped cars should deactivate the alarms when parking in crowded city neighborhoods at night?

No conclusion is made here. Instead based on premise author makes a suggestion or predicts that people with those alarms should deactivate them.

(A) The inconvenience of false alarms is  small price to pay  for the security of a neighborhood. - WRONG. Irrelevant. Price is not discussed, neither it makes any impact in predicting such a way.

(B)  In most cases  when a car alarm sounds at night, it is a  false alarm . - WRONG. Whether it is false or true it doesnot help at all to make such a prediction.

(C) Allowing the residents of a crowded city neighborhood to sleep undisturbed is  more important  than preventing car theft. - CORRECT. If not then prediction can't be reached so.

(D) People who equip their cars with antitheft alarms are generally  inconsiderate of others.  - WRONG. What type of people they are does not help.

(E) The sounding of car antitheft alarms during the  daytime  does not disturb the residents of crowded city neighborhoods. - WRONG. Loses focus. Irrelevant.

Answer C.

roch1991 · Answer

I thought so too...but then then again all that depends on a hugh IF. From what is given in the passage there is no way to tell that 'In most cases' as in option (B) In most cases when a car alarm sounds at night, it is a false alarm.
On the other hand option C is pretty solid. The author is driving at the fact that whatever the cause(theft or branch) he doesn't care, sleep is more important and therefore considerate people need to switch off the alarm.

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A cars antitheft alarm tat sounds in the middle of the night in a cro

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