[quote="gmat1393"]A weapons-smuggling incident recently took place in country Y. We all know that Y is a closed society. So Y's government must have known about the weapons.

Which of the following is an assumption that would make the conclusion above logically correct?


(A) If a government knows about a particular weapons-smuggling incident, it must have intended to use the weapons for its own purposes.

(B) If a government claims that it knew nothing about a particular weapons-smuggling incident, it must have known everything about it.

(C) If a government does not permit weapons to enter a country, it is a closed society.

(D) If a country is a closed society, its government has a large contingent of armed guards patrolling its borders.

(E) If a country is a closed society, its government has knowledge about everything that occurs in the country.



E should be correct answer
D can be tempting , but D goes too far in talking about large contigent of armed guards

E.

Falsify the sentence E. And see if the conclusion ''So Y's government must have known about the weapons. '' still holds true. In this case, it doesn not. So, In order for the conclusion to hold true, E must also be true. (and since E is not explicitly mentioned in the paragraph, it must be an assumption)

The argument is that the government must have known about the weapons since the weapons-smuggling incident took place in a closed society (country Y).

We are asked to find the assumption. What must be true for the above to be true?

A - This may not be true. Just because someone knows something took place doesn't mean we can derive the motif of that someone.
B - Not necessarily. This doesn't bridge the gap between closed societies and the conclusion drawn
C - Not necessarily - we need to understand how the author derived the awareness of the government to the weapons incident.
D - this is really off the beaten path
E - Correct. This must be true otherwise our conclusion doesn't work. The government must know about everything in a closed society in order for the author to make his conclusion the way he or she did.
_________________

(A) If a government knows about a particular weapons-smuggling incident, it must have intended to use the weapons for its own purposes. - no question of using the weapons. OOS.

(B) If a government claims that it knew nothing about a particular weapons-smuggling incident, it must have known everything about it. - first part OOS.

(C) If a government does not permit weapons to enter a country, it is a closed society. - this is the definition bof a closed society. Irrelevant.

(D) If a country is a closed society, its government has a large contingent of armed guards patrolling its borders. - looks good and inline with the argument. Hold.

(E) If a country is a closed society, its government has knowledge about everything that occurs in the country. - looks appealing but the problem here is "everything". We cannot conclude anything about everything from the given argument.

So, D for me.

Sent from my Lenovo K53a48 using GMAT Club Forum mobile app

E is correct.

I understand D can be tempting, but D goes too far in talking about out of the scope

The passage is talking about weapons and government why E ? E talks about everything we don't know what everything constitutes.

A weapons-smuggling incident recently took place in country Y. We all know that Y is a closed society. So Y's government must have known about the weapons.

Which of the following is an assumption that would make the conclusion above logically correct?

(A) If a government knows about a particular weapons-smuggling incident, it must have intended to use the weapons for its own purposes.
No…negating this reveals the argument works just fine. We don’t need to assume that the government INTENDED to use the weapons for ITS OWN PURPOSES to draw the conclusion that the government must have known about the weapons.

(B) If a government claims that it knew nothing about a particular weapons-smuggling incident, it must have known everything about it.
No…not an assumption

(C) If a government does not permit weapons to enter a country, it is a closed society.
No…not an assumption.

(D) If a country is a closed society, its government has a large contingent of armed guards patrolling its borders.
No…not an assumption.

(E) If a country is a closed society, its government has knowledge about everything that occurs in the country.
Correct. Suppose the government didn’t know everything that occurs in its closed society, then in that case the conclusion that they MUST HAVE KNOWN about the weapons can fail.
_________________

Cause and Effect

... We all know that Y is a closed society. So Y's government must have known about the weapons.
Hence,

Closed society - > Government must know.

(E) If a country is a closed society, its government has knowledge about everything that occurs in the country- restates the Cause and Effect. IF Closed society - > Government must know.