Company X and Company Y have each been building a rocket ship able to

Passage:
Company X and Company Y have each been building a rocket ship able to travel to Mars. After five years of design and construction, the rocket ships have been unveiled to the public, which instantly notices the rocket ships are so similar in design as to be indistinguishable. Therefore, one of the companies must have had information pertaining to the design of the other rocket ship.

Main point of passage:
Public : The design of both companies rockets are indistinguishable.So one of the companies must have had the design info of other company rocket ship.

We need to weaken this reasoning.
First pass of Process of elimination.

(A) The engineers responsible for the design and construction of the rocket ship are subjected to a rigorous vetting process.

Vetting means background check before employing an individual.
Not sure hold on to A.

(B) Each space ship uses a different color scheme, which matches that of each company’s logo.

This option talks about colour , we are concerned about the design only.
Eliminate B.

(C) Several employees currently in the employ of company X were working for company Y before the construction of the rocket ship.

Okay some employees went from Y to X.I would argue that this option strengthens the argument that some employees might have had info of the other company.
Eliminate C.



(D) There is only one possible design given the current materials that confers the aerodynamic requirements to reach Mars.

Hmm so there is only one design that is possible regardless of which company builds it.
This option is a contender.Hold on to it.

(E) Both companies have been highly profitable and have been heavily funded throughout the five years in which the rocket ships have been constructed.

Okay it says that the companies are not constrained or different from one another in terms of funding

What does profitability and funding have to with the design of Rocket ship? there is no evidence of this link.
Eliminate E.

Final Choice
We have A and D

A talks about doing employee background checks.
D directly talks about the design aspect.

D is the correct answer.

Posted from my mobile device

I like to think of "which of the following calls into question the validity of the argument" as "weaken" questions.

In this case, the answer must be D. If there is only 1 type of effective design out there it is completely possible for the two companies to make something that look alike without having access to each other's designs.

Posted from my mobile device

Magoosh Official Explanation

Premise #1 – X and Y both building rocket ships that can get to Mars

Premise #2 – X and Y rockets have the exact same design

Conclusion: One of the companies copied the other.

(A) is not strong enough for us to be confident that some kind of spying wasn’t going on. Anyhow, even if the engineers remain mum, there are presumably non-engineers aware of the rocket who could share information to the other company.

(B) The focus is on how the design of the two rockets is identical. The color is irrelevant.

(C) This strengthens the conclusion, since it gives us a compelling reason how information regarding design could leak.

(D) is saying that there is only one way to build a rocket capable of mars. Therefore, the designs will inevitably converge so that they are virtually indistinguishable.

(E) does not account for how the two rockets look so similar. It only tells us that both have lots of funding.

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