In a recent speech, the president of a major college said, “It is extr

Can somebody please explain why B is wrong. Thanks in advance.

I feel OA of this question is awfully different from that of official GMAT questions.

Answer A is strengthened the conclusion => out.

We can also eliminate answers B, C (irrelevant).

Only D and E left.

Answer E is very tempting but we should be careful because this is a TRAP !.

Answer D: the students can speak foreign language just by learning courses, no need to go overseas.

So answer D is the boss .

carcass,

Why B is wrong. If students who can speak foreign language well go out of country to study then president's proposal will not fulfil desired intention.

What we do know here is the following statement which must be weakened:

The students that DO NOT know a language and should be ready for the future job market should learn a language which is not their native AND to achieve this goal, they should go abroad.

B is saying that the students that ALREADY know a language well will choose a country to go for.

This statement not only does not weaken our argument but also has no sense at all. They know the language already well and go for a country to do what ?' yes to improve their language skills. However, could also avoid this because they know the language well. Maybe or maybe not.

Instead, we need to care who does not know the language (at least fluently) and choose to go abroad to learn. Nonetheless, a student could take an intensive course a still have a huge mastery of the language.

Me for example, I took neither an intensive course nor I went abroad from my country but thanks to gmatclub I have mastery of a fluent English

There's no consistency in this passage and answer choice D. The correct answer option D INDICATEs that the "president is from USA! But, there's NO clear indication in the passage that the "president is from USA". If the president is from USA then the choice D makes sense to me. I'm requesting my honorable experts MartyTargetTestPrep, GMATNinja, DmitryFarber, ccooley, AjiteshArun, VeritasKarishma to correct me if my thinking is wrong.

B is not our concern; our concern is that "we've to find out at least 1 student who is fluent in a foreign language by the help of his/her own country's coaching center (or, the same establishment from where one can learn 1 foreign language fluently).

Yes, technically, option (D) should be
D) Some students learn to speak foreign languages fluently by taking intensive immersion courses within the country.

A US based test maker would have made this question with a local bias. It is understandable why this would happen, though it is incorrect. Such a situation will not arise in the actual GMAT since all questions with a regional bias are weeded out in the experiment phase so there is nothing to worry about.

MartyTargetTestPrep,
Thank you sir for your kind feedback, but I did not get "kudos' from you. HaHa

It is somewhat unconsciousness for the question writer (test maker)-they forgot that there are so many 'President' out of USA.
Thank you so much VeritasKarishma.

manishcmu I think that the point here is ALL vs. some
Notice that the main conclusion says ALL students need to go abroad to learn a language. So, if only one (some means more than one) of them can learn the language inside the US, the arguments will break.

The word "some" in answer choice D makes it highly vulnerable to elimination. Can someone please help me understanding how this choice is stated correct?

Posted from my mobile device

Chaitanya14 hi
I just explained it in previous post, just look up
Notice that the main conclusion says "ALL students need to go abroad to learn a language". So, if only one (some means more than one) of them can learn the language inside the US, the arguments will break.

The president implies that the best option is to go abroad and learn. If students are learning in America, which I understand is a cultural bias but is still assumed we are in America, then this is less strong of an argument.

In a recent speech, the president of a major college said, “It is extremely valuable for college-educated adults entering the workplace to be able to speak at least one foreign language fluently. I am, therefore, proposing that all of our students be encouraged to spend their junior year abroad.”

Which of the following, if true, most weakens the president’s argument? ​

A) Most students who study abroad for a full year return home with a good working knowledge of the language spoken in the country. ​
B) Only students who already know a language well will choose to study in a country where that language is spoken. ​
C) Some colleges do a much better job than others in teaching foreign languages. ​
D) Some students learn to speak foreign languages fluently by taking intensive immersion courses in the United States. ​
E) Many students who spend their junior year abroad learn to speak the language fluently, but cannot read and write with ease.

D is the answer.
The option talks about immersion courses. Immersion courses mostly includes homestay with a family that speaks the targeted language. So it effectively eliminates the need to go abroad and learn the language.

I'm going to try to answer this question. Please correct me if I'm wrong.

Premise: It is extremely valuable for college-educated adults entering the workplace to be able to speak at least one foreign language fluently.
Conclusion: President is proposing that all of our students be encouraged to spend their junior year abroad.

The goal is to weaken this question.
My pre-thinking: The students can study by themself in their country.

So I left the answer choices between B and D.
B) Only students who already know a language well will choose to study in a country where that language is spoken. ​
>> Tempting question, but it cannot weaken the question because this choice does not weaken the conclusion.

D) Some students learn to speak foreign languages fluently by taking intensive immersion courses in the United States. ​
>> It's like my pre-thinking. I will choose this answer choice next time.

Hello from the GMAT Club VerbalBot!

Thanks to another GMAT Club member, I have just discovered this valuable topic, yet it had no discussion for over a year. I am now bumping it up - doing my job. I think you may find it valuable (esp those replies with Kudos).

Want to see all other topics I dig out? Follow me (click follow button on profile). You will receive a summary of all topics I bump in your profile area as well as via email.