A group of college students in a sociology course theorized

Question

A group of college students in a sociology course theorized that unrest in the workplace is a result of outside agitators, news stories, and other societal factors. An occurrence at factory X is an exception to this theory: The workers there recently went on strike only to protest the poor quality of the seats they use while working at the conveyor belt, rather than any external factor.

Which of the following, if true, casts the most serious doubt on the argument that the strike at factory X is an exception?

A) The workers at factory X chose to strike in response to a report on the dangers of non-ergonomic seating that was televised on a national news program.

B) Many aspects of the strike at factory X have been studied, and none of these studies has produced a possible societal cause for the strike.

C) There are many factories other than factory X in which the same conveyor belts and seating are used, and there have been no strikes at these factories.

D) Some cases of unrest in the workplace result from worker dissatisfaction.

E) There is no single problem with either the conveyor belt or the seating at factory X that can be said to have caused the workers to strike.

Leo8 · Answer

A group of college students in a sociology course theorised that unrest in the workplace is a  result of outside agitators, news stories, and other societal factors .

Conclusion : An occurrence at factory X is an exception to this theory
 Reason: The workers there recently went on strike  only to protest the poor quality of the seats  they use while working at the conveyor belt, rather than any external factor.

The explanation cited in for the conclusion is that the worker were worried about the poor quality of the seats. But the point to note here is how did the workers know that the quality of the chair was poor until compared or told by some one who was not internal to the factory. Why did the workers protest only now and not before? there mus be something recently which would have caused the workers to comprehend the chair they use for seating is not good, they must have got some standards to compare against.

Option A gives us the same info 
A) The workers at factory X chose to strike in response to a report on the dangers of non-ergonomic seating that was televised on a national news program.

sobby · Answer

Between A and E ...i am more leaning towards E .

E conveys - there are some other factors that caused the strike not the seating issue in factory X.

stne · Answer

IMO A
 
Option A identifies an external factor as the cause.
Option E says there are no problems with the conveyor belt or the seating at factory x, so this option negates the seating issue , but does not actually show the external cause.
lets use a math analogy:A non negative integer does not necessarily mean a positive integer.The integer could be zero also. In the same way absence of seating issue does not necessarily mean external issue it could be other internal issue.

Correct option should be A IMO.

thedubey · Answer

A group of college students in a sociology course theorized that unrest in the workplace is a result of outside agitators, news stories, and other societal factors. An occurrence at factory X is an exception to this theory: The workers there recently went on strike only to protest the poor quality of the seats they use while working at the conveyor belt, rather than any external factor.

Which of the following, if true, casts the most serious doubt on the argument that the strike at factory X is an exception?

A) The workers at factory X chose to strike in response to a report on the dangers of non-ergonomic seating that was televised on a national news program. (It has to be correct answer because of news stories)

E) There is no single problem with either the conveyor belt or the seating at factory X that can be said to have caused the workers to strike. (this option negates the seating issue)

guptarahul · Answer

Conclusion: An occurrence at factory X is an exception to this theory

A) The workers at factory X chose to strike in response to a report on the dangers of non-ergonomic seating that was televised on a national news program. Correct

B) Many aspects of the strike at factory X have been studied, and none of these studies has produced a possible societal cause for the strike. Incorrect

C) There are many factories other than factory X in which the same conveyor belts and seating are used, and there have been no strikes at these factories. Not concerned with other factories.

D) Some cases of unrest in the workplace result from  worker dissatisfaction . Incorrect

E) There is no single problem with either the conveyor belt or the seating at factory X that can be said to have caused the workers to strike. This option negates the seating issue.

IMO A

Sajjad1994 · Answer

Official Explanation

Conclusion:   An occurrence at factory X is an exception to   theory   unrest in the workplace is a result of outside agitators, news stories, and other societal factors.

Premise:   The workers there recently went on strike only to protest the poor quality of the seats they use while working at the conveyor belt, rather than because of any external factor.

Assumption:

(1)  It's not a coincidence. It’s not a coincidence that the workers are striking and stating that the reason for the strike is the poor quality of the seats they use. Any correlation which may exist between the strike and outside agitators, news stories,   other societal factors is only a coincidence.

(2)  There's no other cause. Nothing other than the poor quality of the seats they use caused the workers to strike.

This is a weaken question, as indicated by the phrase casts the most doubt. The passage contains a causality pattern. This is evidenced by the statement that workers there...went on strike only to protest the poor quality of the seats they use while working at the conveyor belt, indicating that the quality of the seats caused the workers to strike. The argument presents a theory about another cause, which is that outside agitators, news stories,   other societal factors cause unrest in the workplace. The argument then concludes that this theory has an exception, because a particular strike is a counterexample caused only by the poor quality of the seats   use.

The standard assumption of a causality pattern is that it’s not a coincidence and that there’s no other cause. Because this is a weaken question, the correct answer will provide a reason that the counterexample of the quality of the seats is not a counterexample because one of the factors in the theory may be the cause of the worker’s strike. Additionally, since the argument concludes about an exception to   theory, the correct answer must show that some combination of one or more outside agitators, news stories,   other societal factors presents some other possible cause for the strike. Evaluate the answer choices.

Choice A:  Correct. The passage's claim that the workers at factory X are an exception to the college students' theory is undermined by the statement that The workers at factory X chose to strike in response to a report...that was televised on a national news program. Such a report is an example of a news story, and agrees with the students' theory.

Choice B:  No. It would be extreme language to say that the lack of a possible societal cause weakens the argument, since outside agitators and news stories may still have caused the strike.

Choice C:  No. Many factories other than factory X is out of scope. Whether workers strike at other factories under similar conditions may seem tempting, but does not provide any information about the cause of this particular strike.

Choice D:  No. Worker dissatisfaction is out of scope. If this particular strike is one of some cases, the source of the worker dissatisfaction is unspecified, and it could be due to the quality of the seats.

Choice E:  No. It would be extreme language to conclude that no single problem with…the seating weakens the argument. While this choice may be tempting, as it may seem to indicate some other cause of the strike, a combination of multiple factors regarding the quality of the seats may still be the cause of the strike.

The correct answer is choice A.

Hope it helps

A group of college students in a sociology course theorized

Prep Toolkit

Top 5 GMAT Debrief Videos

615 to 715 in 15 Days (Ria's Strategies)

More than Quant/Verbal Abilities: Speed vs. Accuracy

745 with Only Self-Prep and GMAT Club

From 555 to 765: 210-point Improvement

Perfect 805 Score Debrief by Julia

My Rewards

GMAT Critical Reasoning (CR) Questions

A group of college students in a sociology course theorized

Prep Toolkit

615 to 715 in 15 Days (Ria's Strategies)

More than Quant/Verbal Abilities: Speed vs. Accuracy

745 with Only Self-Prep and GMAT Club

From 555 to 765: 210-point Improvement

Perfect 805 Score Debrief by Julia

My Rewards