As part of major renovations to Flowertown's Main Street

Question

As part of major renovations to Flowertown's Main Street train station, consultants to the train company proposed moving the station's entrance from its current valuable Main Street location to a low-rent adjoining side street and then leasing the high-rent entrance space to retail businesses. In that way, the train company could easily pay for those and all other proposed renovations without negative impact on its tight budget.
Which of the following, if true, would most strongly support the consultants' proposal?

(A) More train commuters are employed in businesses located on Main Street than in businesses located on the adjoining side street.

(B) A reliable survey of Flowertown's commuters showed that virtually none of them would use the train any less frequently if the station's entrance were moved.

(C) The high-rent block of Flowertown's Main Street includes several buildings whose owners currently seek to replace long-standing tenants lost in recent months.

(D) If the station's entrance were moved, the train company would need to begin costly renovations to its Main Street entrance space.

(E) Ridership on Flowertown trains declined only slightly from 1970 to 1985 while other train companies lost large numbers of commuters.

Amittedly, I love the way GMAC makes its reasoning. I found it very interesting. Post here for discussion.

prasannar · Answer

B for me

The train company's shift in the entrance should not impact the revenues and revenues are directly dependent on the commuters. Thus if the change does not impact the # of commuters negatively. thus the revenue would be revenue through rent of the main street space + the non-impacted revenue thru commuters

(A) More train commuters are employed in businesses located on Main Street than in businesses located on the adjoining side street.

(B) A reliable survey of Flowertown's commuters showed that virtually none of them would use the train any less frequently if the station's entrance were moved.

(C) The high-rent block of Flowertown's Main Street includes several buildings whose owners currently seek to replace long-standing tenants lost in recent months.-> this weakens the conclusion by creating competition

(D) If the station's entrance were moved, the train company would need to begin costly renovations to its Main Street entrance space.-> if change calls for costly renovation it weakens the conclusion that says "tight budget"

(E) Ridership on Flowertown trains declined only slightly from 1970 to 1985 while other train companies lost large numbers of commuters.- irrelevant

farend · Answer

greatps24 · Answer

As part of major renovations to Flowertown's Main Street train station, consultants to the train company proposed moving the station's entrance from its current valuable Main Street location to a low-rent adjoining side street and then leasing the high-rent entrance space to retail businesses. In that way, the train company could easily pay for those and all other proposed renovations without negative impact on its tight budget.
Which of the following, if true, would most strongly support the consultants' proposal?

(A) More train commuters are employed in businesses located on Main Street than in businesses located on the adjoining side street. Weakner: This option hints that no. of commuters may decrease as per consultants' proposal 
(B) A reliable survey of Flowertown's commuters showed that virtually none of them would use the train any less frequently if the station's entrance were moved.  No negative impact on the existing revenues (i.e. coming from existing number of commuters)

(C) The high-rent block of Flowertown's Main Street includes several buildings whose owners currently seek to replace long-standing tenants lost in recent months.  OFS 
(D) If the station's entrance were moved, the train company would need to begin costly renovations to its Main Street entrance space.  weakner. It may have negative impact on the budget 
(E) Ridership on Flowertown trains declined only slightly from  1970 to 1985  while  other train companies  lost large numbers of commuters.  OFS

Good Question.

mihir0710 · Answer

S (Strengthen): Conclusion Shifting entrance will generate enough money to pay for renovations
Missing info : Will consultant’s recommendation have any undesirable impact. 
If yes, conclusion will NOT be strengthened.
If no, the conclusion will be strengthened.

(A) More train commuters are employed in businesses located on Main Street than in businesses located on the adjoining side street.
Irrelevant : Where commuters are employed does not matter here.

(B) A reliable survey of Flowertown's commuters showed that virtually none of them would use the train any less frequently if the station's entrance were moved.
Correct. This option eliminate a possible negative effect of consultant’s recommendation

(C) The high-rent block of Flowertown's Main Street includes several buildings whose owners currently seek to replace long-standing tenants lost in recent months.
At the most, this option says that the recommendation may not have a desired effect as other high rent spaces in the locality are on lease and hence the train station’s space may or may not find a taker.
 
(D) If the station's entrance were moved, the train company would need to begin costly renovations to its Main Street entrance space.
Again, it says that to implement the recommendation, the train station will need extra money and thus possibly weaken the argument.
 
(E) Ridership on Flowertown trains declined only slightly from 1970 to 1985 while other train companies lost large numbers of commuters.
Irrelevant, as the option does not specify the reason for less decline in the ridership

Take away:
Let’s say X (rents from leasing) & Y (train commuters) form Z (revenues), and p (recommendation of the consultant) affects X. 
Then always look for effects of P on Y.

krittapat · Answer

egmat   GMATNinja   mikemcgarry   MartyTargetTestPrep   KarishmaB 
Could you please help explain why option A and C are incorrect?

MartyTargetTestPrep · Answer

The correct answer will support the idea that the train company could pay for renovations by moving the station's entrance from its current valuable Main Street location to a low-rent adjoining side street and then leasing the high-rent entrance space to retail businesses.

Let's consider (A).

(A) More train commuters are employed in businesses located on Main Street than in businesses located on the adjoining side street.

The fact that the commuters will be coming from main street does not indicate that the train company will be able to pay for the renovations by moving the entrance and leasing the space to retail businesses. After all, neither the passage nor choice (A) indicates that commuters will support the retail businesses.

So, this choice has no effect on the argument, other than possibly to make us wonder whether commuters will use the train less if the entrance is less conveniently located. So, if anything, this choice is a slight weakener. After all, if fewer commuters use the train, then the train company will have less revenue for paying for renovations.

Now, let's consider choice (C).

(C) The high-rent block of Flowertown's Main Street includes several buildings whose owners currently seek to replace long-standing tenants lost in recent months.

Common sense tells us that if what choice (C) says is true, then the plan may not work. After all, if there is already empty space on the high-rent block, then the train company may have trouble finding tenants for the entrance space in the station. So, rather than support the proposal, this choice casts doubt on the idea that the plan will work and thus is a weakener.

SnorLax_7 · Answer

@MartyMurray@ChiranjeevSingh@KarishmaB@AjiteshArun

Kindly can you help me to know what 'those' is referring to ? whether major renovations or moving the entrance space from Main to side or moving and leasing ?

also in option D, I know its not an strenghtener, but how can it be a weakener if we are already accounting all the proposed renovations whether costly or cheap. Even if it is part of movement of entrance space renovations cost, then we are covering this cost in 'those' ? right ?

Please help

Thanks !

bronaugust · Answer

To solve this question, we can deploy the    IMS's four-step technique   .

STEP #1:  IDENTIFY THE QUESTION TYPE BY READING THE QUESTION STEM

The question stem states, 'Which of the following, if true, would most strongly support the consultants' proposal?' Clearly, we are dealing with a strengthening question. Now that the question type is identified, let us proceed to the second step.

STEP #2:  DECONSTRUCT THE ARGUMENT

In a strengthening question, it is a must to deconstruct the argument by figuring out the conclusion and the premise. The question stem makes it clear that there is a proposal in picture. The proposal itself becomes the conclusion; the basis on which the conclusion is arrived at becomes the premise.

CONCLUSION /PROPOSAL:   Move the station's entrance from its current valuable Main Street location to a low-rent adjoining side street and then lease the high-rent entrance space to retail businesses.

PREMISE:   The train company could easily pay for those and all other proposed renovations without negative impact on its tight budget.

Since it is a planning argument, we can also state the assumption.

ASSUMPTION:   The plan will work, meaning there will be no problem with the plan.

Now that the argument is deconstructed, we can proceed to the third step.

STEP #3:  FRAME A SHADOW ANSWER/KNOW WHAT THE RIGHT ANSWER SHOULD BE DOING

We need to choose an answer option that will strengthen the stated proposal; therefore, the right answer should be listing a situation that simply says it is possible for the plan to be implemented without any hardships. Now that we know what the right answer needs to be doing, let us proceed to the final step.

STEP #4:  ELIMINATE INCORRECT ANSWER OPTIONS

Answer options that are beyond the scope of the argument or those that weaken it can be eliminated.

(A) More train commuters are employed in businesses located on Main Street than in businesses located on the adjoining side street. -   OUT OF SCOPE   -  The argument already calls the Main Street entrance valuable, so any info about where more train commuters are employed is irrelevant and does not impact the proposal in any way. -    ELIMINATE

(B) A reliable survey of Flowertown's commuters showed that virtually none of them would use the train any less frequently if the station's entrance were moved. -   STRENGTHENS   -  Remember, the right answer option is to state a situation that says the plan will work without any problems, and if a reliable survey did indeed find that Flowertown's commuters showed that virtually none of them would use the train any less frequently if the station's entrance were moved, it would only give more of a reason to the train company to implement the plan.  -   KEEP

(C) The high-rent block of Flowertown's Main Street includes several buildings whose owners currently seek to replace long-standing tenants lost in recent months. -   OUT OF SCOPE   -  What the owners of several buildings in the high-rent block of Flowertown's Main Street do is beyond the scope of the argument.  -   ELIMINATE

(D) If the station's entrance were moved, the train company would need to begin costly renovations to its Main Street entrance space. -   WEAKENS   -  We are looking for an answer option that supports the proposal; however, this one actually introduces a problem in the plan.  -   ELIMINATE

(E) Ridership on Flowertown trains declined only slightly from 1970 to 1985 while other train companies lost large numbers of commuters. -   OUT OF SCOPE   -  What happened to ridership of Flowertown trains or other trains during the stated period is irrelevant and will not in any way impact the proposal.  -   ELIMINATE

Hence, B is the right answer.

bronaugust · Answer

-> The word 'those' refers to the action of moving, the action of leasing, and major renovations. -> While I take your point, D can be considered a weakener because it introduces a problem to the stated plan. The actions of moving and leasing could be easily paid along with the other PROPOSED renovations, right? This answer option does not tell us whether this renovation is proposed!

Hope that helps.

A_Nishith · Answer

(B) A reliable survey of Flowertown's commuters showed that virtually none of them would use the train any less frequently if the station's entrance were moved. 
No negative impact on the existing revenues (i.e. coming from existing number of commuters)

Answer: B

As part of major renovations to Flowertown's Main Street

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As part of major renovations to Flowertown's Main Street

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