Events & Promotions
|
|
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.
Nov 1811:00 AM PST
-12:00 PM PST
Join us in a live GMAT practice session and solve 30 challenging GMAT questions with other test takers in timed conditions, covering GMAT Quant, Data Sufficiency, Data Insights, Reading Comprehension, and Critical Reasoning questions.
Nov 2211:00 AM IST
-01:00 PM IST
Do RC/MSR passages scare you? e-GMAT is conducting a masterclass to help you learn – Learn effective reading strategies Tackle difficult RC & MSR with confidence Excel in timed test environment- Nov 23
11:00 AM IST
-01:00 PM IST
Attend this free GMAT Algebra Webinar and learn how to master the most challenging Inequalities and Absolute Value problems with ease. 
Nov 2510:00 AM EST
-11:00 AM EST
Prefer video-based learning? The Target Test Prep OnDemand course is a one-of-a-kind video masterclass featuring 400 hours of lecture-style teaching by Scott Woodbury-Stewart, founder of Target Test Prep and one of the most accomplished GMAT instructors.
20 Dec 2019, 04:46
Kudos
Bookmarks
D
Be sure to select an answer first to save it in the Error Log before revealing the correct answer (OA)!
Difficulty:
95%
(hard)
Question Stats:
47% (02:27) correct
53%
(02:29)
wrong
based on 2028
sessions
History
Date
Time
Result
Not Attempted Yet
In the industrialized nations, the last century has witnessed a shortening of the average workday from twelve hours or longer to less than eight hours. Mindful of this enormous increase in leisure time over the past century, many people assume that the same trend has obtained throughout history, and that, therefore, prehistoric humans must have labored incessantly for their very survival.
We cannot, of course, directly test this assumption. However, a study of primitive peoples of today suggests a different conclusion. The Mbuti of central Africa, for instance, spend only a few hours each day in hunting, gathering, and tending to other economic necessities. The rest of their time is spent as they choose. The implication is that the short workday is not peculiar to industrialized societies. Rather, both the extended workday of 1880 and the shorter workday of today are products of different stages of the continuing process of industrialization.
Which of the following inferences about industrialization is best supported by the passage above?
(A) People in advanced industrialized societies have more leisure time than those in nonindustrialized societies.
(B) An average workday of twelve hours or more is peculiar to economies in the early stages of industrialization.
(C) Industrialization involves a trade-off between tedious, monotonous jobs and the benefits of increased leisure.
(D) It is likely that the extended workday of an industrializing country will eventually be shortened.
(E) As industrialization progresses, people tend to look for self-fulfillment in leisure rather than work.
We cannot, of course, directly test this assumption. However, a study of primitive peoples of today suggests a different conclusion. The Mbuti of central Africa, for instance, spend only a few hours each day in hunting, gathering, and tending to other economic necessities. The rest of their time is spent as they choose. The implication is that the short workday is not peculiar to industrialized societies. Rather, both the extended workday of 1880 and the shorter workday of today are products of different stages of the continuing process of industrialization.
Which of the following inferences about industrialization is best supported by the passage above?
(A) People in advanced industrialized societies have more leisure time than those in nonindustrialized societies.
(B) An average workday of twelve hours or more is peculiar to economies in the early stages of industrialization.
(C) Industrialization involves a trade-off between tedious, monotonous jobs and the benefits of increased leisure.
(D) It is likely that the extended workday of an industrializing country will eventually be shortened.
(E) As industrialization progresses, people tend to look for self-fulfillment in leisure rather than work.
16 Aug 2020, 23:17
Kudos
Bookmarks
Pre-thinking:
We are asked to come up with an inference about industrialization. From the passage, we can gather that in the earlier stages of industrialization that the world was in a century ago, longer working days were the norm. The number of hours required to work per day then progressively reduced as industrialization advanced. ("...both the extended workday of 1880 and the shorter workday of today are products of different stages of the continuing process of industrialization").
Let us examine the answer options:
(A) People in advanced industrialized societies have more leisure time than those in nonindustrialized societies. This is incorrect as is evidenced from the example given of the Mbuti of Central Africa. Eliminate.
(B) An average workday of twelve hours or more is peculiar to economies in the early stages of industrialization. This is a tempting answer option. We know that the average workday used to be 12 hours or longer a century ago, when industrialization was at an earlier stage. We also know that as industrialization advanced in modern times, the average work day reduced (in terms of hours required to work). The only problem I have with this option is that it states that this is peculiar ie; unique to economies in early stages of industrialization. In other words, in no other economies will the work day be 12 hours or longer. We do not know this from the passage. As of now, we can hold on to this option.
(C) Industrialization involves a trade-off between tedious, monotonous jobs and the benefits of increased leisure. We do not know from the passage that the longer work hours were spent doing "tedious, monotonous jobs". Eliminate.
(D) It is likely that the extended workday of an industrializing country will eventually be shortened. Correct answer and consistent with our pre-thinking.
(E) As industrialization progresses, people tend to look for self-fulfillment in leisure rather than work. We do not know from the passage whether the shorter work hours are due to preferences of people changing. It might simply be that there is less work for humans to do, or that there are more people for the same amount of work. Eliminate.
Since option (D) is so much cleaner and clearer from the passage than option (B), we can eliminate the latter.
Hope this helps.
We are asked to come up with an inference about industrialization. From the passage, we can gather that in the earlier stages of industrialization that the world was in a century ago, longer working days were the norm. The number of hours required to work per day then progressively reduced as industrialization advanced. ("...both the extended workday of 1880 and the shorter workday of today are products of different stages of the continuing process of industrialization").
Let us examine the answer options:
(A) People in advanced industrialized societies have more leisure time than those in nonindustrialized societies. This is incorrect as is evidenced from the example given of the Mbuti of Central Africa. Eliminate.
(B) An average workday of twelve hours or more is peculiar to economies in the early stages of industrialization. This is a tempting answer option. We know that the average workday used to be 12 hours or longer a century ago, when industrialization was at an earlier stage. We also know that as industrialization advanced in modern times, the average work day reduced (in terms of hours required to work). The only problem I have with this option is that it states that this is peculiar ie; unique to economies in early stages of industrialization. In other words, in no other economies will the work day be 12 hours or longer. We do not know this from the passage. As of now, we can hold on to this option.
(C) Industrialization involves a trade-off between tedious, monotonous jobs and the benefits of increased leisure. We do not know from the passage that the longer work hours were spent doing "tedious, monotonous jobs". Eliminate.
(D) It is likely that the extended workday of an industrializing country will eventually be shortened. Correct answer and consistent with our pre-thinking.
(E) As industrialization progresses, people tend to look for self-fulfillment in leisure rather than work. We do not know from the passage whether the shorter work hours are due to preferences of people changing. It might simply be that there is less work for humans to do, or that there are more people for the same amount of work. Eliminate.
Since option (D) is so much cleaner and clearer from the passage than option (B), we can eliminate the latter.
Hope this helps.
General Discussion
20 Dec 2019, 04:48
Kudos
Bookmarks
