Bolli trees, which produce an edible fruit, are found only on the

Question

Bolli trees, which produce an edible fruit, are found only on the coasts of California or Mexico. The leaves of the Bolli trees in California have a sweet smell, unlike the leaves of the Mexican Bolli trees. Therefore, if the fruit from a Bolli tree has a sweet smell and taste to it, it must have been grown in California.

Which of the following, if true, would most strengthen the argument above?

(A) The leaves of Mexican Bolli trees are shaped differently than the leaves of the Californian Bolli trees.

(B) The fruit of a Bolli tree has a smell similar to the leaves of the tree.

(C) The leaves of the Californian Bolli trees have a uniform smell, while the leaves of the Mexican Bolli trees do not all have the same smell.

(D) People who prefer sweeter foods typically prefer the fruit from Californian Bolli trees.

(E) The relative sweetness of the fruit from a Bolli tree is determined by the surrounding environment.

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DinoPen · Answer

Line of thinking:
Boli fruit come from California and Mexico.
California trees have a sweet smell.
Mexican trees don't have a sweet smell.
Therefore, sweet Boli fruit come from California.

Bolli trees, which produce an edible fruit, are found only on the coasts of California or Mexico. The leaves of the Bolli trees in California have a sweet smell, unlike the leaves of the Mexican Bolli trees. Therefore, if the fruit from a Bolli tree has a sweet smell and taste to it, it must have been grown in California.

Which of the following, if true, would most strengthen the argument above?

(A) The leaves of Mexican Bolli trees are shaped differently than the leaves of the Californian Bolli trees.
Irrelevant

(B) The fruit of a Bolli tree has a smell similar to the leaves of the tree.
Correct. This goes with our line of thinking.

(C) The leaves of the Californian Bolli trees have a uniform smell, while the leaves of the Mexican Bolli trees do not all have the same smell.
Irrelevant. We care about the fruit.

(D) People who prefer sweeter foods typically prefer the fruit from Californian Bolli trees.
Irrelevant

(E) The relative sweetness of the fruit from a Bolli tree is determined by the surrounding environment.
Irrelevant. No value added.

kush09 · Answer

Solution:
Conclusion: California Bolli tree fruit have sweet smell and taste.

(A) The leaves of Mexican Bolli trees are shaped differently than the leaves of the Californian Bolli trees.
 -- We don't know if shape of leaves have any impact on taste. Eliminate.

(B) The fruit of a Bolli tree has a smell similar to the leaves of the tree.
 -- Hold this answer choice, this tells about smell but now about taste.

(C) The leaves of the Californian Bolli trees have a uniform smell, while the leaves of the Mexican Bolli trees do not all have the same smell.
 -- Nothing about fruit is mentioned. Eliminate.

(D) People who prefer sweeter foods typically prefer the fruit from Californian Bolli trees.
 -- Only tells us about taste, not about smell. Eliminate.

(E) The relative sweetness of the fruit from a Bolli tree is determined by the surrounding environment.
 -- Correct, it tells us about both, as leaves are surrounding to tree, more sweet the leaves are the more sweet the fruit is in both smell and taste.

IMO answer is E.

winterschool · Answer

Bolli trees, which produce an edible fruit, are found only on the coasts of California or Mexico. The leaves of the Bolli trees in California have a sweet smell, unlike the leaves of the Mexican Bolli trees. Therefore, if the fruit from a Bolli tree has a sweet smell and taste to it, it must have been grown in California.

Which of the following, if true, would most strengthen the argument above?

(A) The leaves of Mexican Bolli trees are shaped differently than the leaves of the Californian Bolli trees.  Irrelevant

(B) The fruit of a Bolli tree has a smell similar to the leaves of the tree.  Correct

(C) The leaves of the Californian Bolli trees have a uniform smell, while the leaves of the Mexican Bolli trees do not all have the same smell.  Incorrect

there is no correlation between leaves and fruit

(D) People who prefer sweeter foods typically prefer the fruit from Californian Bolli trees.  Incorrect

we don know fruit from Californian Bolli tree sweet or not

(E) The relative sweetness of the fruit from a Bolli tree is determined by the surrounding environment.  Irrelevant

Ravi729 · Answer

The conclusion of the argument is "if the   fruit   from a Bolli tree has a sweet smell and taste to it, it must have been grown in California".
The reasoning for the above conclusion is based on 2 premises
1) Bolli trees are found only on the coasts of California and Mexico.
2) Leaves of Bolli trees from California have a sweet smell and those of Mexico do not.

The conclusion about fruits is drawn from a premise about leaves.
So the assumption here is  sweet leaves ==> Sweet fruits . 
Any option that supports this assumption is our answer.

Only Option B does that. Hence  B is the correct answer

Hoozan · Answer

Argument: 
(1) Bolli trees are found in California and Mexico
(2) Bolli tree leaves in California have a sweet smell while Bolli trees in Mexico do not

Conclusion:  The fruits of the Bolli trees in California have a sweet smell while thre fruits of the Bolli trees in Mexico do not

Question sem:  Strengthen

Pre-thinking:  The premise talks about the leaves smelling sweet while teh coclusion talks about the fruit smelling sweet thus there has to be some   correlation between the leaves and the fruit

1. The fruits of the Bolli trees smell exactly as the leaves of the Bolli trees.

2.  The fruits and the leaves get their smell from a common source.  (Thus the leaves and the fruits will smell the same way)

(A) The leaves of Mexican Bolli trees are shaped differently than the leaves of the Californian Bolli trees.  Incorrect.  The   shape  of the leaves  have no effect on the   smell  of the fruits.  Moreover, this choice compares the leaves in California to the leave of Mexico. It does not even comment on the fruits. Thus this choice is irrelevant.

(B) The  fruit  of a Bolli tree has a  smell similar to the leaves  of the tree.  Correct.   This choice brings a correlation between the smell of the fruits and the smell of the leaves. Indeed if fruits smell similar to the leaves then if the leaves have a sweet smell, the fruits will definitely have a sweet smell.

(C) The leaves of the Californian Bolli trees have a  uniform smell , while the leaves of the Mexican Bolli trees  do not all have the same smell .  Incorrect.   Like choice (A), this choice does not even talk about the fruit and the correlation between leaves and the fruits.

(D) People who prefer sweeter foods typically prefer the fruit from Californian Bolli trees.  Incorrect.   One could argue that if the people who prefer sweeter fruits choose the Californian ones then it must be true that the smell of the fruits is sweet. This is not completely true. The choice talks about the preference of people and this preference could be for various reasons.

E.g. California and Mexican fruits and both sweet, but the fruits of California  are much bigger in shape  OR  take less time to ripe  OR the  Mexican fruits have a lot of worms .  The point is that just because the people prefer the Californian fruits does not imply that the fruits of California are sweet while those of Mexico are not

(E) The relative sweetness of the fruit from a Bolli tree is determined by the surrounding environment.  Incorrect.   So now we have a correlation between the environment and the fruit. But this does not help us link the smell of leaves and the smell of fruits.

Note - For choices like (E) we need to understand the idea/tone of the argument. The premise revolves around the leaves and the fruits. Thus we need an answer choice that highlights the elements of the premise.

Correct choice:  (B)

Hoozan · Answer

kush09  I liked your thought process for this argument. After reading your explanation I too started thinking about (E) But I am still hesitant about (E) because of the term  environment . I am not too sure if the term environment refers to the leaves or does it refer to the environment on a much larger level. Having said that, I find great value in your perspective and can't wait to see the OA

EMPOWERgmatVerbal · Answer

Official Explanation:

Bolli trees, which produce an edible fruit, are found only on the coasts of California or Mexico. The leaves of the Bolli trees in California have a sweet smell, unlike the leaves of the Mexican Bolli trees. Therefore, if the fruit from a Bolli tree has a sweet smell and taste to it, it must have been grown in California.
 
 Which of the following, if true, would most strengthen the argument above? 
 
(A) The leaves of Mexican Bolli trees are shaped differently than the leaves of the Californian Bolli trees. 
 
(B) The fruit of a Bolli tree has a smell similar to the leaves of the tree.
 
(C) The leaves of the Californian Bolli trees have a uniform smell, while the leaves of the Mexican Bolli trees do not all have the same smell.
 
(D) People who prefer sweeter foods typically prefer the fruit from Californian Bolli trees.
 
(E) The relative sweetness of the fruit from a Bolli tree is determined by the surrounding environment.

Question Type:   Strengthen
  Boil It Down:   California Bolli Trees = sweet smelling leaves & sweet fruit / Mexican Bolli Trees = not sweet smelling leaves & unclear on what fruit tastes like
  Goal:    Find the missing assumption that will best support the argument.

Analysis:  
This question asks you for a piece of evidence that will  strengthen  the conclusion. If we can find an assumption, which is simply an unstated piece of evidence, we’ll have found our answer.
 
  Premise 1:   Bolli trees are only in California and Mexico – nowhere else.
 
  Premise 2:   Californian Bolli leaves are sweet; Mexican are not.
 
  Conclusion:   If the fruit is sweet, it is from California.
 
  Assumption:   Notice the jump from the leaves (in the premise) to the fruit (in the conclusion.) The argument assumes that sweet fruit must come from a tree with sweet leaves. If this were not true, then the argument falls apart: A sweet piece of fruit could come from a non-sweet smelling Mexican tree. (Whether this seems unlikely to you or not, doesn’t matter – we’re only concerned with the inner logic of the argument.)

This means that the argument as given DOES assume that sweet fruit always comes from a tree with sweet leaves. Stating this “out loud” will strengthen the conclusion, and this is what choice B does.
 
 (A) The leaves of Mexican Bolli trees are shaped differently than the leaves of the Californian Bolli trees.  
The leaves are relevant, but the shape of the leaves is irrelevant to the argument.
 
 (B) The fruit of a Bolli tree has a smell similar to the leaves of the tree. 
This is the correct choice.
 
 (C) The leaves of the Californian Bolli trees have a uniform smell, while the leaves of the Mexican Bolli trees do not all have the same smell. 
The uniformity of the smells of the different types of leaves is irrelevant. The California leaves might have different kinds of sweet smells and the Mexican leaves could have different non-sweet smells. 
 
 (D) People who prefer sweeter foods typically prefer the fruit from Californian Bolli trees. 
This does not need to be assumed. It might be that people who do, as well as people who do not, prefer sweet foods still prefer the Mexican fruit, which could be preferable in other ways. Maybe everyone prefers the California fruit. This would not have an effect on the conclusion.
 
 (E) The relative sweetness of the fruit from a Bolli tree is determined by the surrounding environment. 
This is simply background information that has no bearing on the conclusion. We have no interest in why the fruit is sweet.

Don’t study for the GMAT. Train for it.

Hoozan · Answer

The OA for (E) mentions that we are not concerned with how the fruit tastes, but doesn't the argument clearly state that if a fruit SMELLS and TASTES sweet then it must be from California

Posted from my mobile device

Aashimabhatia · Answer

FACT- Sweet smelling leaves belong to California, not Mexico.
GAP IN THE ARGUMENT- How does sweet smelling leaves infer sweet smelling & tasting fruit?
Only option C talks about this gap and hence, the answer.
E is incorrect because we don't know what all is included in the environment, likely only includes the surrounding area of the tree and not the leaves. Even if it includes leaves, what factor of the environment affects sweetness of the fruits in what way? It would take some assumptions to reach the conclusion that Environment, which we are assuming means leaves, will cause sweetness of the fruit if the leaf is sweet. 
Option C is more direct and connects the gap within the argument.

Bolli trees, which produce an edible fruit, are found only on the

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Bolli trees, which produce an edible fruit, are found only on the

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