Several Craverton Company employees have drafted a petition to be subm

Several Craverton Company employees have drafted a petition to be submitted to the company’s management in the hope that the petition might prevent the closure of the exercise facility at Craverton’s headquarters. The petition claims that the closure would leave many employees without a convenient alternative to the facility, and that most of Craverton’s employees are required to work long hours, which would make commuting to an alternative facility burdensome. The petition also claims that Craverton has the greatest number of employees of any company in the city, and that closing the exercise facility would leave that sizable workforce without an alternative for something as important as personal fitness.

Text in red: Conclusion, that the fitness facility should not be closed.
Text in green: Premises
Prethinking: This is an except question, so to save time and be efficient, go straight to the options to do the POE. For the sake of completeness, any reason that will show that the company was justified in closing the exercise facility will weaken the conclusion.

Correct answer choice will be an option that does not weaken (it can strengthen or can do nothing to the conclusion!)

Each of the following, if true, weakens the claims raised in the petition EXCEPT:

Ⓐ For most Craverton employees, the commute to a fitness facility either from home, or from the office, would be unreasonably burdensome.
Correct. This strengthens the company's stance of closing the exercise facility.

Ⓑ Employees interested in the company fitness facility make up a disproportionately small fraction of Craverton’s workforce.
Incorrect. This choice weakens the conclusion.

Ⓒ A large proportion of Craverton’s employees either have fitness equipment at home, or engage in activities such as jogging.
Incorrect. This choice weakens the conclusion.

Ⓓ Most of the time, the fitness facility at Craverton’s headquarters is available for use, but remains empty.
Incorrect. This choice weakens the conclusion.

Ⓔ At Craverton’s fitness facility, workout classes that are typically filled elsewhere are routinely cancelled due to lack of interest.
Incorrect. This choice weakens the conclusion.

CR WEAKEN SERIES: 2) Several Craverton Employees

Several Craverton Company employees have drafted a petition to be submitted to the company’s management in the hope that the petition might prevent the closure of the exercise facility at Craverton’s headquarters. The petition claims that the closure would leave many employees without a convenient alternative to the facility, and that most of Craverton’s employees are required to work long hours, which would make commuting to an alternative facility burdensome. The petition also claims that Craverton has the greatest number of employees of any company in the city, and that closing the exercise facility would leave that sizable workforce without an alternative for something as important as personal fitness.

Each of the following, if true, weakens the claims raised in the petition EXCEPT:

Ⓐ For most Craverton employees, the commute to a fitness facility either from home, or from the office, would be unreasonably burdensome.
Ⓑ Employees interested in the company fitness facility make up a disproportionately small fraction of Craverton’s workforce.
Ⓒ A large proportion of Craverton’s employees either have fitness equipment at home, or engage in activities such as jogging.
Ⓓ Most of the time, the fitness facility at Craverton’s headquarters is available for use, but remains empty.
Ⓔ At Craverton’s fitness facility, workout classes that are typically filled elsewhere are routinely cancelled due to lack of interest.


Official Explanation

Question Type: Weaken EXCEPT
Boil It Down (Simplified & Abbreviated Summary of the Prompt): Closing Co. fitness facility = No alternative
Missing Information (assumption): The fitness center is worth saving, and there are no alternatives to the fitness center in general
Goal: Find FOUR options that show closing the facility doesn’t really matter as much as claimed, and select the ONE option that either strengthens, or does nothing.

Let’s see which option best achieves the goal:

Ⓐ Yes! This option actually reinforces the claims made in the petition because it further rules out the alternatives, and thereby helps reinforce the need for the facility. This option strengthens the argument. All the other options turn out to weaken, making A the EXCEPTION, and the correct option.

Ⓑ By stating that a very small portion of Craverton employees are actually interested in the facility, this option helps to minimize the role the fitness facility plays, thereby weakening the presumption that the facility is worth saving. That said, this option is no slam dunk against the argument because there could still be some who use the center, but the fact that this option says a disproportionately small fraction of the employees are even interested in the facility is still enough to run counter to the petition’s claims.

Ⓒ This option deals the most decisive blow against the claims made in the petition because it shows that a large proportion of Craverton’s employees DO have an alternative to the facility. In other words, this option shows that alternatives to the facility need not necessarily be in the form of other facilities. The company could close the facility, and people would still have alternative ways to maintain personal fitness.

Ⓓ D and E are remarkably similar. D says that even when the facility is available for use, no one is even using it most of the time. After reading option D, it would be pretty hard to believe that the facility is that critical. That said, this option leaves open the possibility that the other times when it is in use, it could be VERY busy. For example, maybe it’s empty during regular business hours, but just before, and after, or even during lunch it could be very busy. Nevertheless, this option definitely gives some evidence that runs counter to the claims made in the petition.

Ⓔ Just like D, E delivers a blow to the claims made in the petition by showing that interest in the facility is likely weaker than those drafting the petition might claim. However, also like D, E could still isn’t a decisive blow because maybe the facility is busy, but the classes are unpopular. That said, E also definitely provides some evidence that runs counter to the claims made in the petition.


◀ CR WEAKEN SERIES: Question 1) Barnsdall Museum of Art
▶ CR WEAKEN SERIES: Question 3) Frequency-Dependent Foraging

Hi Patronus,

I like the way you broke down your call into 3 points. You're also spot on in noticing the similarity between options D and E.

Hi Engr2012,

I was hoping you could expand on why you marked options B-E as Weakeners. I'd like to see your rationale.*

* Before you might be influenced by the Official Explanation (not that you would, but I have to say so to help maximize the value of the opportunity)

Absolutely. Here are the explanations. We know that the company wants to close the exercise facility based on the thinking that people are not using it. This argument can be weakened either by strengthening company's stance of closing the facility or weakening employees' stance that the facility is 'useful' for the employees.

Ⓑ Employees interested in the company fitness facility make up a disproportionately small fraction of Craverton’s workforce.
Incorrect. This choice weakens the conclusion. If only a small fraction of employees are using the facility, it might not be cost effective for the company to maintain the exercise facility. Thus the conclusion that the facility is 'useful' for the employees is weakened.

Ⓒ A large proportion of Craverton’s employees either have fitness equipment at home, or engage in activities such as jogging.
Incorrect. This choice weakens the conclusion. This is very similar to choice A in that if employees already have fitness equipment at home or they dont need any equipment, they will not be using the exercise facility and thus the company is right in closing the facility.

Ⓓ Most of the time, the fitness facility at Craverton’s headquarters is available for use, but remains empty.
Incorrect. This choice weakens the conclusion. Similar to option A. If only a small fraction or even 0% of employees are using the facility, it might not be cost effective for the company to maintain the exercise facility. Thus the conclusion that the facility is 'useful' for the employees is weakened.

Ⓔ At Craverton’s fitness facility, workout classes that are typically filled elsewhere are routinely cancelled due to lack of interest.
Incorrect. This choice weakens the conclusion. Similar to other incorrect options. If the attendance for some of the 'famous' exercise routines is abysmally low, then the company's view that the facility isnt as useful as the employees say it to be is strengthened.

Hi Engr2012,

Great upgrade. It's EXTREMELY valuable as you review questions you've done to break down specifically why the right answer is right, and why the wrong answers are wrong in your own words. Of course, you'd want to compare your thinking to that of the official explanations, but doing the break downs will not only better enable you to get in sync with the logic of the questions, but it's also a great paraphrasing skill-builder.

Doing the extra analysis will take a lot more time per question, but that's a part of the reason that any seasoned GMAT tutor will tell you they'd rather you do fewer questions and do them right, then to blast through a huge bank of questions with little afterthought.

There's one thing I want to add/adjust to your breakdown. It has to do with option A:
Ⓐ For most Craverton employees, the commute to a fitness facility either from home, or from the office, would be unreasonably burdensome.

Previously, you said:
"Correct. This strengthens the company's stance of closing the exercise facility."

Actually, take a look at the Official Explanation:
Ⓐ Yes! This option actually reinforces the claims made in the petition because it further rules out the alternatives, and thereby helps reinforce the need for the facility. This option strengthens the argument. All the other options turn out to weaken, making A the EXCEPTION, and the correct option.

This option actually strengthens the claims in the petition to keep the facility OPEN.

EMPOWERgmatMax, you are correct. Option A does strengthen the conclusion that there is a need for the exercise facility to stay open as without such a facility, employees will find it taxing and burdensome to go to an external gym or any other exercise facility. I meant exactly this when I wrote my earlier post

Also, I do agree that it is not about the quantity but about the quality of the questions especially in verbal.

I went for B because a small fraction still might be few thousand of employees...
say company has 100k employees
out of them, only 10% are going there..
that's 10k people!!!! still a big number

Hi mvictor,

Thanks for weighing in. As I'm sure you've seen, the GMAT is infatuated with the logical implications of the Number vs. Percent concept, namely this:

The number isn't important, it's all about the percentage (i.e. "A lot of people do x", but a lot relative to what?).

Let's walk though the facts in the prompt, and then take a closer look at option B to see how it undercuts one of the core thrusts of the argument:

From the prompt:
The petition also claims that Craverton has the greatest number of employees of any company in the city, and that closing the exercise facility would leave that sizable workforce without an alternative for something as important as personal fitness.

Each of the following, if true, weakens the claims raised in the petition EXCEPT:

Ⓑ Employees interested in the company fitness facility make up a disproportionately small fraction of Craverton’s workforce.

The size of the actual number is irrelevant in the context of the proportion of workers who use the facility. Yes, there could still be a large number who use it, but based on the facts of the prompt, that's a significant proportion of Craverton employees, let alone relative to the proportion of citizens in general.

Even with your example that there are 10K employees interested in the facility, the actual number is meaningless to the logical force of the argument, which rests on the small size of that fraction relative actual number of Craverton employees (and the number of employees in the city), which in percentage terms is not as significant as the argument attempts to purport; thus, this option provides a weakening force to the argument, and since this is a Weaken EXCEPT question, we dump the option.

In sum, you related this question to an important concept on the exam. Thanks for your inquiry.