|
|
GMAT Club Daily Prep
Thank you for using the timer - this advanced tool can estimate your performance and suggest more practice questions. We have subscribed you to Daily Prep Questions via email.
Customized
for You
Track
Your Progress
Practice
Pays
Not interested in getting valuable practice questions and articles delivered to your email? No problem, unsubscribe here.
12 Apr 2025, 23:30
Kudos
Bookmarks
B
Be sure to select an answer first to save it in the Error Log before revealing the correct answer (OA)!
Difficulty:
35%
(medium)
Question Stats:
72% (01:53) correct
28%
(02:05)
wrong
based on 229
sessions
History
Date
Time
Result
Not Attempted Yet
In the bodies of reptiles, some industrial by-products cause elevated hormonal activity. Hormones govern the development of certain body parts, and in reptiles abnormal development of these parts occurs only with elevated hormonal activity. Recently, several alligators with the telltale developmental abnormalities were discovered in a swamp. So, apparently, industrial by-products have entered the swamp's ecosystem.
The reasoning in the argument is most vulnerable to criticism on the grounds that the argument
(A) provides no explanation for developmental abnormalities that do not result from elevated hormonal activity
(B) fails to consider whether elevated hormonal activity can result from factors other than the presence of industrial by-products
(C) fails to address the possibility that industrial by-products were contained in food the alligators ate
(D) fails to say whether reptiles other than alligators were examined for the same developmental abnormalities that were discovered in the alligators
(E) uses evidence drawn from a sample of alligators that is unlikely to be representative of alligators in general
The reasoning in the argument is most vulnerable to criticism on the grounds that the argument
(A) provides no explanation for developmental abnormalities that do not result from elevated hormonal activity
(B) fails to consider whether elevated hormonal activity can result from factors other than the presence of industrial by-products
(C) fails to address the possibility that industrial by-products were contained in food the alligators ate
(D) fails to say whether reptiles other than alligators were examined for the same developmental abnormalities that were discovered in the alligators
(E) uses evidence drawn from a sample of alligators that is unlikely to be representative of alligators in general
20 Apr 2025, 10:31
Kudos
Bookmarks
kingbucky
B is the correct answer here!
Quote:
The argument doesn’t consider alternate explanations for the hormonal activity and jumps straight to blaming industrial by-products.
Why the others are wrong:
- (A): Irrelevant — we’re only talking about abnormalities that result from elevated hormones.
- (C): Too specific. Whether the by-products came via food or water is beside the point — the question is whether they’re the only cause.
- (D): Adds unnecessary scope — the argument is only about these alligators.
- (E): Misleads — the issue isn’t about sample size or representativeness, but about the causal assumption.
The argument assumes only one possible cause for the effect and ignores others — therefore the right answer is Option B.
