Jordan: If a business invests the money necessary to implement ecologi

I am glad you brought this up.
'Mimic the reasoning' questions are a bit harder than others. You first need to figure out the reasoning of the argument and then try to figure out the logic used in each of the options. It helps to put the logic in A and B format.

Jordan: If a business invests the money necessary to implement ecologically sound practices, its market share will decrease. But if it doesn’t implement these practices, it pollutes that environment and wastes resources.

Jordan: If A does X, something bad will happen to A. If A doesn't do X, something bad will happen to B.

Terry: But if consumers demand environmental responsibility of all businesses, no particular business will be especially hurt.

Terry: If C does D, A doing X will not be bad.

Now this is the logic used by the argument:
Jordan: If A does X, something bad will happen to A. If A doesn't do X, something bad will happen to B.
Terry: If C does Y, A doing X will not be bad.


(A) Jordan: Either it will rain and our plans for a picnic will be thwarted or it won’t rain and the garden will go yet another day without much-needed watering. Terry: But if it doesn’t rain, we can buy a hose and water the garden with the hose.


Jordan: If it rains, something bad will happen to us. If it doesn't rain something bad will happen to garden.
Terry: If we do X, raining will not be bad.

That logic does parallel our original logic.

(B) Jordan: Each person can have either an enjoyable life or a long life, for one must eat vegetables and exercise continuously to stay healthy. Terry: That’s not true: there are many happy health-conscious people.

Jordan: One can get only one thing at a time A or B.
Terry: No, both can be had together.

(C) Jordan: If taxes are raised, many social problems could be solved, but if they’re lowered, the economy will grow again. So we can’t have both social reform and a growing economy. Terry: But if taxes remain at their current level, neither social problems nor the economy will get worse.

Jordan: If A does X, good things will happen. If A does opposite of X, other good things will happen. So both good things cannot happen simultaneously.
Terry: If nothing is done, no bad thing will happen.

(D) Jordan: If we remodel the kitchen, the house will be more valuable, but even if we do, there’s no guarantee that we’ll actually get more for the house when we sell it. Terry: But if we don’t remodel the kitchen, we might get even less for the house than we paid for it.

Jordan: If we do X, a good thing will happen but no guarantee about another good thing.
Terry: If we do not do X, a bad thing may happen.

(E) Jordan: If the dam’s spillway is opened, the river might flood the eastern part of town, but if the spillway is not opened, the dam might burst. Terry: There’s no real danger of the dam’s bursting, but if we get more heavy rain, opening the spillway is the most prudent policy.

Jordan: If X happens, a bad thing may happen but it X doesn't happen, another bad thing may happen.
Terry: Chances of the other bad thing are low. Doing X may be most prudent.

Answer (A)­

Here are some videos that will help you navigate through conditionals:

https://youtu.be/MmlwcTlHZz8
https://youtu.be/BW8Ijrhjjq8
https://youtu.be/yQYkL1DSslA­

As far as I can recollect this is the best CR question I have solved till date.
I will give my piece.

Implement poilicy - P, Not implement policy - !p, Env protected - E, Env not protected !E ;

Argument structure
Jordan - 1.Implement policy -> Env protected -> Business Harm
p -> E -> BH
2.Not implement policy -> Env Not protected -> Env damage
!p -> !E -> E damage

Terry - if ( consumer = Env Protect) => !BH .

Terry brings in third factor Consumenr to negate 1 of J's argument.

So, on similar terms

A. J: 1 Rain -> Garden -> !picnic
2 !Rain -> Garden -> !watering the garden

T: if( !Rain) => Hose pipe -> Water the garden. Effects the 2nd part of J's argument. And negates it by bringing third element, the hose pipe. Hold

B and D can be eliminated easily. In C Terry's argument is the catch.So,eliminated.

E. J: 1 Dam open -> River water Rise -> Flood
2!Dam open -> River water Rise -> Burst

T: if( Dam Open) => !Dam Burst -> Flood happens still . Eliminate.

Hence IMO A.

I believe this helps.

I choose A, without checking other answers.
Structure: Paradox
Person 1
- If do A, got B
- If do NOT A, got C
It is impossible to get B and C at the same time
Person 2
- If we do X, we can get B and C at the same time

I am not getting parallel reasoning questions at all. Have gone theough CR bible, still just cannot grasp how to get about these questions. If any experts can detail the "way of thinking" and approach taking this problem for example would be highly helpful to me and definitely others.

GMATNinja VeritasKarishma

Try to get only the sense

Original Argument

Jordan: Either X is done and BAD1 happens, or X is not done and BAD2 happens

Terry: If x does not happen, there is an alternate Y TO X which removes BAD1 (and BAD2 also or more simply removes BAD)

Choice A has similar reasoning

(A) Jordan: Either it will rain (x) and our plans for a picnic will be thwarted (BAD1)or it won’t rain( NO X) and the garden will go yet another day without much-needed watering(BAD2).
Terry: But if it doesn’t rain(NO X), we can buy a hose(Y) and water the garden with the hose(removes BAD2 or more simply removes BAD).
_________________

Hi

Agree it is a great question. But usually what is the ideal time to solve such questions.

All of the choices are dense and require a thorough analysis.

GMATNinja, @e-gmat

Are parallel reasoning questions on the GMAT?

Posted from my mobile device
_________________

Jordan: If a business invests the money necessary to implement ecologically sound practices, its market share will decrease. But if it doesn’t implement these practices, it pollutes that environment and wastes resources.

Terry: But if consumers demand environmental responsibility of all businesses, no particular business will be especially hurt.

In which one of the following exchanges is the logical relationship between Jordan’s and Terry’s statements most similar to the logical relationship between their statements above?

(A) Jordan: Either it will rain and our plans for a picnic will be thwarted or it won’t rain and the garden will go yet another day without much-needed watering.
Terry: But if it doesn’t rain, we can buy a hose and water the garden with the hose. - CORRECT. A and B are negative. Solution is given for B only by considering nX. Just that solution is for B instead of A as in original argument. However, among the choices this is the best.

(B) Jordan: Each person can have either an enjoyable life or a long life, for one must eat vegetables and exercise continuously to stay healthy.
Terry: That’s not true: there are many happy health-conscious people. - WRONG. Both A and B are positive(eliminate here itself). T just counters straight forward rather adding to J's argument.

(C) Jordan: If taxes are raised, many social problems could be solved, but if they’re lowered, the economy will grow again. So we can’t have both social reform and a growing economy.
Terry: But if taxes remain at their current level, neither social problems nor the economy will get worse. - WRONG. Both A and B are positive(eliminate here itself). So, the argument differ here itself but still considerable, not to be eliminated straight away. T adds, but for both for A and B, instead of A only as in original argument. Also, neither solution is based on X not on nX.

(D) Jordan: If we remodel the kitchen, the house will be more valuable, but even if we do, there’s no guarantee that we’ll actually get more for the house when we sell it.
Terry: But if we don’t remodel the kitchen, we might get even less for the house than we paid for it. - WRONG. A is positive and B is negative((eliminate here itself)). T's solution results in something else altogether C.

(E) Jordan: If the dam’s spillway is opened, the river might flood the eastern part of town, but if the spillway is not opened, the dam might burst.
Terry: There’s no real danger of the dam’s bursting, but if we get more heavy rain, opening the spillway is the most prudent policy. - WRONG. Both A and B are negative. T's argument is against J's, instead of adding. It results C when Y(heavy rain) happens.

A 95%tiler and as usual, like anyone, picked C.
The passage is somewhat like this:
J presents a situation wherein if X thing is done then something negative(A) happens and if not done then too some other thing negative happens(B).
T adds to J's argument but by starting with "but"(kind of distraction) wherein he says another element for which if this X thing is done then doing X doesn't leads to A. Basically, a common pathway is offered by T where things are all good without paying much attention to B.

Based in this only A, C and E are looking good.
In C, T gives solution for both A and B. E has T's argument against J's, instead of supporting it. Thus, A remain after POE.

Answer A.
_________________

What are the chances of seeing something like this on the GMAT?

­Nice way to go about it. ­

Initially, I was confused between C and E as I thought that the other options were really not considering the opposite of the initial action suggested by the first speaker, but then I understand that it is not about going with the opposite and about not doing the first action. 

Not necessarily, not doing something is the opposite of doing something. 

Interesting one!