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Despite the best efforts of our national soccer league, the city of As 12 Sep 2016, 11:16
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C
Be sure to select an answer first to save it in the Error Log before revealing the correct answer (OA)!

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45% (medium)

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63% (01:32) correct 37% (01:35) wrong based on 1466 sessions

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Despite the best efforts of our national soccer league, the city of Ashton refuses to adequately support its professional franchise, which has the lowest ratings, revenue, and season ticket sales of any in the league. Therefore it is clear that Ashton is not interested in soccer.

Which of the following, if true, would most weaken the argument?

A. Ashton’s franchise has been in existence for over twenty years.
B. Ashton is nationally renowned for its professional basketball team, perhaps the most successful in the history of the country.
C. Ashton has two long established collegiate soccer programs that dominate media coverage in the city.
D.Ashton has the lowest average income per capita of any city in the league.
E. Ashton has refused to build a new stadium to support the franchise.
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C
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Despite the best efforts of our national soccer league, the city of As 17 Jan 2017, 11:02
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nitiny
Hi Experts ,

please help here for reasoning. IMO C , but OA is D .

Regards
Nitin

Premise: Ashton has the lowest ratings, revenue, and season ticket sales.
Conclusion: Ashton is not interested in soccer.

However there could be some other reason that ticket sales are low. The other reason is described in option D. Hence D attacks the link between the premise and conclusion.

Please note that the correct answer should attack the LINK between the premise and conclusion, not the conclusion in isolation. Hence option C is incorrect. (Such an option is frequently given as a trap.)
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Despite the best efforts of our national soccer league, the city of As 17 Jan 2017, 00:05
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Hi Experts ,

please help here for reasoning. IMO C , but OA is D .

Regards
Nitin
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Despite the best efforts of our national soccer league, the city of As 17 Jan 2017, 14:51
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PathFinder007
Despite the best efforts of our national soccer league, the city of Ashton refuses to adequately support its professional franchise, which has the lowest ratings, revenue, and season ticket sales of any in the league. Therefore it is clear that Ashton is not interested in soccer.

Which of the following, if true, would most weaken the argument?

A. Ashton’s franchise has been in existence for over twenty years.
B. Ashton is nationally renowned for its professional basketball team, perhaps the most successful in the history of the country.
C. Ashton has two long established collegiate soccer programs that dominate media coverage in the city.
D.Ashton has the lowest average income per capita of any city in the league.
E. Ashton has refused to build a new stadium to support the franchise.

As written, either C or D could be correct. If the conclusion read 'it is clear that Ashton is not interested in professional soccer', D would be correct for the reasons described here (it provides an alternative explanation, other than lack of interest - which is common in weaken problems.)

However, since the conclusion doesn't mention professional soccer specifically, C certainly does weaken it, by showing evidence that Ashton is, in fact, interested in soccer. D is a more 'GMAT-like' answer, but that's not a decision you'd need to make on the test. There's something wrong with this problem.
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Despite the best efforts of our national soccer league, the city of As 18 Jan 2017, 03:05
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Hi sayantanc2k,


Please explain how choice C attacks conclusion in isolation and choice D attack at the LINK between premise and conclusion. Thanks.
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Despite the best efforts of our national soccer league, the city of As 18 Jan 2017, 18:37
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AR15J
Hi sayantanc2k,


Please explain how choice C attacks conclusion in isolation and choice D attack at the LINK between premise and conclusion. Thanks.

Premise: Ashton has the lowest ratings, revenue, and season ticket sales.
Conclusion: Ashton is not interested in soccer.

An observation or fact is given - this fact is used as the premise. From this premise the cause of such observation (conclusion) is arrived at.
Option D illustrates an alternative cause for the observation/ premise. i.e. this option attacks the CAUSAL RELATION, which is the core of the argument. Therefore option D is correct

Option C attacks only the conclusion, just by stating another observation that might show that the conclusion may not be true. But option C has nothing to do with the CAUSAL RELATION between the premise and conclusion. Therefore Option C is wrong.

For further understanding, you may refer to this post about an official question that incorporates similar trap:
is-this-answer-key-from-og-correct-208210.html#p1715182
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Despite the best efforts of our national soccer league, the city of As 09 Mar 2017, 13:53
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nitiny
Hi Experts ,

please help here for reasoning. IMO C , but OA is D .

Regards
Nitin

Premise: Ashton has the lowest ratings, revenue, and season ticket sales.
Conclusion: Ashton is not interested in soccer.

However there could be some other reason that ticket sales are low. The other reason is described in option D. Hence D attacks the link between the premise and conclusion.

Please note that the correct answer should attack the LINK between the premise and conclusion, not the conclusion in isolation. Hence option C is incorrect. (Such an option is frequently given as a trap.)


can we assume the the ticket prices are high enought to be out of budget of the people? because thats what has to be assumed for D to be correct.
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Despite the best efforts of our national soccer league, the city of As 11 Mar 2017, 13:32
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nitiny
Hi Experts ,

please help here for reasoning. IMO C , but OA is D .

Regards
Nitin

Premise: Ashton has the lowest ratings, revenue, and season ticket sales.
Conclusion: Ashton is not interested in soccer.

However there could be some other reason that ticket sales are low. The other reason is described in option D. Hence D attacks the link between the premise and conclusion.

Please note that the correct answer should attack the LINK between the premise and conclusion, not the conclusion in isolation. Hence option C is incorrect. (Such an option is frequently given as a trap.)


can we assume the the ticket prices are high enought to be out of budget of the people? because thats what has to be assumed for D to be correct.

Yes, a weakening statement does not need to confirm that the conclusion is wrong. It just needs to weaken the argument. The same is true for strengthening statement, i.e. it does not need to confirm that the argument is true.
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Despite the best efforts of our national soccer league, the city of As 27 May 2018, 11:50
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Despite the best efforts of our national soccer league, the city of Ashton refuses to adequately support its professional franchise, which has the lowest ratings, revenue, and season ticket sales of any in the league. Therefore it is clear that Ashton is not interested in soccer.

Which of the following, if true, would most weaken the argument?

A. Ashton’s franchise has been in existence for over twenty years.
B. Ashton is nationally renowned for its professional basketball team, perhaps the most successful in the history of the country.
C. Ashton has two long established collegiate soccer programs that dominate media coverage in the city.
D.Ashton has the lowest average income per capita of any city in the league.
E. Ashton has refused to build a new stadium to support the franchise.

VERITAS PREP OFFICIAL SOLUTION:



Solution: C

Begin this Weaken question by identifying the conclusion, negating it, and looking for support for the negation. The negation here is “Ashton may be interested in soccer”, and (C) provides evidence to support that assertion: just because Ashton doesn’t care about PROFESSIONAL soccer doesn’t mean that it doesn’t care about any kind of soccer.
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Despite the best efforts of our national soccer league, the city of As 27 May 2018, 12:14
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PathFinder007
Despite the best efforts of our national soccer league, the city of Ashton refuses to adequately support its professional franchise, which has the lowest ratings, revenue, and season ticket sales of any in the league. Therefore it is clear that Ashton is not interested in soccer.

Which of the following, if true, would most weaken the argument?

A. Ashton’s franchise has been in existence for over twenty years.
B. Ashton is nationally renowned for its professional basketball team, perhaps the most successful in the history of the country.
C. Ashton has two long established collegiate soccer programs that dominate media coverage in the city.
D.Ashton has the lowest average income per capita of any city in the league.
E. Ashton has refused to build a new stadium to support the franchise.

VERITAS PREP OFFICIAL SOLUTION:



Solution: C

Begin this Weaken question by identifying the conclusion, negating it, and looking for support for the negation. The negation here is “Ashton may be interested in soccer”, and (C) provides evidence to support that assertion: just because Ashton doesn’t care about PROFESSIONAL soccer doesn’t mean that it doesn’t care about any kind of soccer.

Hey Bunuel

The OE is C but the OA(in the spoiler) is D?

Can you confirm and correct whichever is wrong?
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Despite the best efforts of our national soccer league, the city of As 27 May 2018, 12:17
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PathFinder007
Despite the best efforts of our national soccer league, the city of Ashton refuses to adequately support its professional franchise, which has the lowest ratings, revenue, and season ticket sales of any in the league. Therefore it is clear that Ashton is not interested in soccer.

Which of the following, if true, would most weaken the argument?

A. Ashton’s franchise has been in existence for over twenty years.
B. Ashton is nationally renowned for its professional basketball team, perhaps the most successful in the history of the country.
C. Ashton has two long established collegiate soccer programs that dominate media coverage in the city.
D.Ashton has the lowest average income per capita of any city in the league.
E. Ashton has refused to build a new stadium to support the franchise.

VERITAS PREP OFFICIAL SOLUTION:



Solution: C

Begin this Weaken question by identifying the conclusion, negating it, and looking for support for the negation. The negation here is “Ashton may be interested in soccer”, and (C) provides evidence to support that assertion: just because Ashton doesn’t care about PROFESSIONAL soccer doesn’t mean that it doesn’t care about any kind of soccer.

Hey Bunuel

The OE is C but the OA(in the spoiler) is D?

Can you confirm and correct whichever is wrong?

This is VEritas Prep question and the OA given in the original source is C. Edited. Thank you.
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Despite the best efforts of our national soccer league, the city of As 28 Oct 2019, 03:55
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PathFinder007
Despite the best efforts of our national soccer league, the city of Ashton refuses to adequately support its professional franchise, which has the lowest ratings, revenue, and season ticket sales of any in the league. Therefore it is clear that Ashton is not interested in soccer.

Which of the following, if true, would most weaken the argument?

A. Ashton’s franchise has been in existence for over twenty years.
B. Ashton is nationally renowned for its professional basketball team, perhaps the most successful in the history of the country.
C. Ashton has two long established collegiate soccer programs that dominate media coverage in the city.
D.Ashton has the lowest average income per capita of any city in the league.
E. Ashton has refused to build a new stadium to support the franchise.

We need to weaken the conclusion of the argument.

Conclusion: Ashton is not interested in soccer.

Option (C) says that collegiate soccer programs dominate media coverage in city. This means people are interested in collegiate soccer. Then we cannot say that Ashton is not interested in soccer. It weakens the conclusion.

Option (D) says that Ashton has lowest avg income per capita. But is it so low that people are unable to support its professional franchise? We don't know. Hence, it doesn't weaken that Ashton is not interested in soccer.

Answer (C)
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Despite the best efforts of our national soccer league, the city of As 07 Jun 2020, 22:41
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nitiny
Hi Experts ,

please help here for reasoning. IMO C , but OA is D .

Regards
Nitin

Premise: Ashton has the lowest ratings, revenue, and season ticket sales.
Conclusion: Ashton is not interested in soccer.

However there could be some other reason that ticket sales are low. The other reason is described in option D. Hence D attacks the link between the premise and conclusion.

Please note that the correct answer should attack the LINK between the premise and conclusion, not the conclusion in isolation. Hence option C is incorrect. (Such an option is frequently given as a trap.)


The Premise is "Ashton is not funding professional soccer" and conclusion is "Ashton is not interested in soccer". Something which weakens the argument will be an option which states that Ashton IS INTERESTED IN SOCCER. This is clearly stated in option C. Your premise is not correct.
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Despite the best efforts of our national soccer league, the city of As 15 Jun 2025, 09:11
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Ashton has lowest ratings, revenue, and season ticket sales. Lower income per capita may explain the low revenue and ticket sales but not ratings, so that's why I eliminate D and hence chose C. Am I thinking correctly?
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