All of the following conclusions are based upon accurate expense vouch

Question

All of the following conclusions are based upon accurate expense vouchers submitted by employees to department heads of a certain corporation in 1995.

Which of them is LEAST likely to be weakened by the discovery of additional 1995 expense vouchers?

(A) The accounting department had only 15 employees and claimed expenses of at least $500.
(B) The sales department had at least 25 employees and claimed expenses of at least $35,000.
(c) The legal department had at least 2 employees and claimed no more than $3000 in expenses.
(D) The public relatins department had no more than 1 employee and claimed no more than $200 in expenses.
(E) The production department had no more than 500 employees and claimed no more than $350 in expenses.

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I can not understand neither question nor answer?

Please help me to figure it out.
Thanks

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Official Answer

B

Please help me to figure it out. Thanks

EBITDA · Accepted Answer

All of the following conclusions are based upon accurate vouchers submitted by employees to department heads of a certain corporation in 1995. Which of them is LEAST likely to be weakened by the discovery of additional 1995 expense vouchers?

A. The accounting department had only 15 employees and claimed expenses of at least $500. 
B. The sales department had at least 25 employees and claimed expenses of at least $35,000. 
C. The legal department had at least 2 employees and claimed no more than $3000 in expenses. 
D. The public relations department had no more than 1 employee and claimed no more than $200 in expenses. 
E. The production department had no more than 500 employees and claimed no more than $350 in expenses.

Could you please share your thoughts on this question?

Thank you.

luminos24 · Answer

Hi Tonglin,

First the answer...i believe it should be B.

Here is what i could make out of the question...

There is this company and it's employees submitted vouchers to the department heads in 1995. What ever they submitted is "accurate". Now at a later date some additional vouchers are discovered. This discovery will affect the original conclusions and might weaken some of them. Let's take one example of choice A.

"The accounting department had only 15 employees and claimed expenses of at least $500"

Here is the newly found vouchers were submitted by another employee (not among these 15) then this conclusion was wrong --> The number of emplyees was infact more than 15. Same is the case with all the other choices, except B.

Since be says "there were  atleast  25 employees" and that the total expense was  atleast  $35,000 --> this conclusion is un-affected by the newly found vouchers, no matter who submitted them and for what ever amount.

HTH

karun_aggarwal · Answer

EXACTULY!

ANSWER IS B

GD JOB FOR A STRANG QUESTION

Antmavel · Answer

luminos24, your analysis was great and really helpfull to understand this problem. Thanks again.

Folaa3 · Answer

Hi Tonglin, what is the source of this question pls.

Paul · Answer

I think this comes from ARCO. I vaguely recall seeing it there.

chunjuwu · Answer

awesome question and explanation. 

Thanks all.

rthothad · Answer

All of the following conclusions are based upon accurate vouchers submitted by employees to department heads of a certain corporation in 1995. Which of them is LEAST likely to be weakened by the discovery of additional 1995 expense vouchers?

A. The accounting department had only 15 employees and claimed expenses of at least $500.
B. The sales department had at least 25 employees and claimed expenses of at least $35,000.
C. The legal department had at least 2 employees and claimed no more than $3000 in expenses.
D. The public relations department had no more than 1 employee and claimed no more than $200 in expenses.
E. The production department had no more than 500 employees and claimed no more than $350 in expenses.

cracker_jack · Answer

B. 

C,D,E are all likely to be weakened since no more than can become more than that amount.

Between A and B, >25 and >$35000 will be less affected than =15 and >$500, I guess bcos equality is a more restricted statement.

christoph · Answer

i like this one :-D

IMO its B)...because only B) gives the possibility for more employees and more expenses.

gandy_achar · Answer

Nice question. Love this one.

B it is.

Took me 3 min 13 secs. How did you guys fare?

Senthil7 · Answer

this took 5 minutes and 34 seconds for me to figure it out but as per your OA i got it right it says! The question is which of the following choices will be least weakened by the fact that additional 1995 vouchers are discovered in simple terms which one will not cause any questioning or suspicion to arise by discovery of additional 1995 vouchers at a later point in time?

My thoughts :

A. The accounting department   had only 15 employees   and   claimed expenses of at least $500  .
B. The sales department   had at least 25 employees   and   claimed expenses of at least $35,000  .
C. The legal department   had at least 2 employees   and claimed   no more than $3000 in expenses  .
D. The public relations department   had no more than 1 employee   and claimed   no more than $200 in expenses.  
E. The production department   had no more than 500 employees   and claimed   no more than $350 in expenses  .

If you see the highlighted portions, this is mostly like a mathematical problem.
 A - Had only x employees and claimed at least Y dollars - employees fixed but voucher amount is "at least" so partially weakened though not to least extent.
B - Had at least x employees and claimed at least Y dollars   - I think this would be the least weakened as both employees and amount claimed limits are expressed as "at least" with no upper limit. So this is the correct answer.  
C - had at least X employees and claimed no more than Y dollars - employee numbers are open-ended but amount claimed is fixed with no more hence will be subject to weakening partially.
D, E- Had no More than X employees and Claimed no more than Y dollars - these 2 choices would be weakened most as there is a cap to both number of employees and amount.  
.

Correct answer is B in my view.
If this helped you and if this indeed is the right answer give me a kudos!

chetan2u · Answer

The Q is based on understanding what would these additional vouchers do?
the conclusions in the 5 choices do not include these 1995 expense voucher..

So what do these 1995 expense voucher do..
 1) They will increase expenses..
2) These could include new members who had initially not given there vouchers and thus can result in increase of members..

Lets see the choices-

A. The accounting department had only 15 employees and claimed expenses of at least $500. 
 the expenses are atleast, so any increase would still not affect the total expenses as we are speaking of ATLEAST..
However ONLY 15 employes may go wrong by addition of some new employee..

B. The sales department had at least 25 employees and claimed expenses of at least $35,000. 
 the expenses are atleast, so any increase would still not affect the total expenses as we are speaking of ATLEAST..
Even employes are atleast 25, so increase of some new employee will not affect the conclusion of some new employee..

C. The legal department had at least 2 employees and claimed no more than $3000 in expenses. 
 the expenses are NO MORE THAN $3000, so any increase will affect the total expenses as we are speaking of no more than..
However atleast usage in employee will not get affected by increase of new member..

D. The public relations department had no more than 1 employee and claimed no more than $200 in expenses. 
 the expenses are NO MORE THAN $3000, so any increase will affect the total expenses as we are speaking of no more than..
 usage of NO MORE THAN in employee will affected total..

E. The production department had no more than 500 employees and claimed no more than $350 in expenses.
 same as D

Only B does not get affected

sairam595 · Answer

Hi chetan2u , Is this really gmatprep question. Scared of it :cry:

abrakadabra21 · Answer

why D is going to be affected by this.

PR has only 1 employee and assuming noone has provided vouchers so 1*200 (difference only can be $200, not more than that)

while B : The sales department had at least 25 employees and claimed expenses of at least $35,000.

i am assuming Sales has total 25. Let say 10 has claimed exactly $35,000 and now additional vouchers are coming from rest 15 are $50000 in this case there is a difference of 15000*15. I don't think it is least.

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All of the following conclusions are based upon accurate expense vouch

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