gmatbull wrote:
Although an insecticide may initially prove effective in reducing malaria-causing mosquito populations, the surviving mosquitoes, genetically endowed to withstand the insecticide, thrive on the reduced competition from other mosquitoes and pass on their genetically based resistance to their offspring. Mosquito populations then become less and less susceptible to the insecticides. Because the presence of older mosquitoes—those ten or more days old—is essential to maintaining the life cycle of the malaria parasite, researchers have proposed addressing the problem of pesticide resistance by searching for a means of targeting only older mosquitoes for elimination.
Which of the following, if true, would most help support the researchers’ proposal?
A. Younger mosquitoes are also essential to the life cycle of the malaria parasite.
B. The older mosquitoes have completed their breeding activity.
C. The proposed approach to controlling mosquito populations is likely to require more frequent applications of pesticides.
D. Malaria is only transmitted to humans by mosquito bites.
E. The older mosquitoes are not as susceptible to insecticides as younger mosquitoes.
Quote:
Hi Mike, I am not able to understand how come option B strengthens the argument. As per me option E strengthens the argument. Can you kindly explain where am i making a mistake, if any. Waiting eagerly for your valuable inputs. Regards, Fame
Fame,
I would say you are confused because this is a poorly written question. In a good GMAT CR question, it may be confusing when thinking it through, but when the OA & OE are revealed, everyone has an "aha!" and feels that it makes sense.
I tend to agree with
VeritasPrepKarishma's excellent analysis above. In her view, the scientists want to kill mosquitoes but leave the inter-mosquito competition intact. If they kill the older mosquitoes, this will have the advantage of killing mosquitoes that are "
essential to maintaining the life cycle of the malaria parasite" without reducing genetic competition in the mosquito population. Among other things, the question expect the non-scientist reader to know that, by the "malaria parasite", they mean the protist that cause malaria, i.e. that malaria is carried by a parasite that lives in the mosquito. I think the question demands a bit too much outside knowledge of science --- I don't think the GMAT would automatically expect the reader to know the details of how genetic competition plays out or the details of how malaria is carried or transmitted. I think it's very very easy to write a hard CR question if it involves specialized knowledge of some scientific field, knowledge that maybe folks learned at one time in high school but is not uppermost in their minds. I think it's much harder to write a CR question that treats everyday topics that are well-known to everyone, that is puzzling to many readers on first reading, but that makes complete sense to everyone once the OE is given. The GMAT does this consistently with its CR question. This particular question falls well short of that standard.
That's my 2¢
Mike
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Mike McGarry
Magoosh Test PrepEducation is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire. — William Butler Yeats (1865 – 1939)