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555-605 Level|   Assumption|      
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vibhav
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Most people who betray their country through some form of 27 May 2012, 20:32
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C
Be sure to select an answer first to save it in the Error Log before revealing the correct answer (OA)!

Difficulty:

25% (medium)

Question Stats:

76% (01:23) correct 24% (01:26) wrong based on 1133 sessions

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Most people who betray their country through some form of espionage are driven by irrational desires to feel powerful or important, to seek revenge, or even to take risks. If these people were thinking rationally, they would not be involved in such self-destructive behavior.

The argument above rests on which of the following assumptions?

A. Self-destruction is the most frequent result of espionage.
B. The desire to feel powerful is always irrational.
C. Those involved in espionage do not have rational reasons for their behavior.
D. Espionage is rarely a successful way to gain revenge.
E. Risk-taking is a less frequent motivation for espionage than the desire to feel important.
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C
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GMATPill
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Most people who betray their country through some form of 27 May 2012, 21:04
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vibhav
Most people who betray their country through some form of espionage are driven by irrational desires to feel powerful or important, to seek revenge, or even to take risks. If these people were thinking rationally, they would not be involved in such self-destructive behavior.

The argument above rests on which of the following assumptions?

A. Self-destruction is the most frequent result of espionage.
B. The desire to feel powerful is always irrational.
C. Those involved in espionage do not have rational reasons for their behavior.
D. Espionage is rarely a successful way to gain revenge.
E. Risk-taking is a less frequent motivation for espionage than the desire to feel important.
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If you map out the argument, you can see it fits the "A vs Not A" Framework from gmatpill.

Irrational Desires -> espionage
Rational ->no such self-destructive behavior.

One of the assumptions here is a reference/link between "espionage" and "self-destructive behavior". In particular, espionage is described as a self-destructive behavior.

However, the question is not just asking for ANY assumption. It's asking an assumption on which the argument depends. In other words, which assumption if NOT TRUE, would make the argument fall apart.

Based on the "A vs Not A" framework, you can see that the argument "depends"/"relies" on people being irrational when committing espionage. Why? Because the opposite (being rational) leads to the opposite conclusion. "No such self-destructive behavior" would result.

If we can establish (thru the assumption negation technique) that the opposite state of the assumption leads to the opposite state of the argument, then that original assumption is an assumption on which the argument depends. This is what (C) does.
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Most people who betray their country through some form of 31 May 2012, 21:08
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Let I try to help you this question. I will use the NEGATE technique for each question.Okay

vibhav
Most people who betray their country through some form of espionage are driven by irrational desires to feel powerful or important, to seek revenge, or even to take risks. If these people were thinking rationally, they would not be involved in such self-destructive behavior.

The argument above rests on which of the following assumptions?

A. Self-destruction is NOT the most frequent result of espionage. => the argument does not mention anything to "self-destruction is NOT the most frequent result of espionage", so A is wrong
B. The desire to feel powerful is NOT always irrational. => this also does not mean that the desire is always rational. However, the argument is safe => so, wrong
C. Those involved in espionage HAVE rational reasons for their behavior. => This choice make the argument broken.
D. Espionage is NOT rarely a successful way to gain revenge.=> whether the espionage is/is not rarely a successful way to gain revenge does not affect anything to the argument.
E. Risk-taking is NOT a less (or EQUAL and MORE) frequent motivation for espionage than the desire to feel important. => does not relate anything to the validity of the argument.
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Most people who betray their country through some form of 09 Jun 2012, 22:32
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I have got it through POE.

Most people who betray their country through some form of espionage are driven by irrational desires to feel powerful or important, to seek revenge, or even to take risks. If these people were thinking rationally, they would not be involved in such self-destructive behavior.

The argument above rests on which of the following assumptions?

A. Self-destruction is the most frequent result of espionage. - the use of "the most"
B. The desire to feel powerful is always irrational. - the use of "always"
C. Those involved in espionage do not have rational reasons for their behavior.
D. Espionage is rarely a successful way to gain revenge. - General Statement and use of "rarely a successful way"
E. Risk-taking is a less frequent motivation for espionage than the desire to feel important. - this option uses the comparison between "seek revenge" and "take risk" but the question stem says "seek revenge or take risk"
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Most people who betray their country through some form of 28 Aug 2012, 04:34
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mehulsayani
Most people who betray their country through some form of espionage are driven by irrational desires to feel powerful or important, to seek revenge, or even to take risks. If these people were thinking rationally, they would not be involved in such self-destructive behavior.

The argument above rests on which of the following assumptions?

1. Self-destruction is the most frequent result of espionage.
2. The desire to feel powerful is always irrational.
3. Those involved in espionage do not have rational reasons for their behavior.
4. Espionage is rarely a successful way to gain revenge.
5. Risk-taking is a less frequent motivation for espionage than the desire to feel important.

Will provide OA after some discussion
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IMO choice C is the answer. The conclusion of the passage states that People with irrational feeling betray their country. People with rational feeling dont.

1. Self-destruction is the most frequent result of espionage. - Irrelevant as there is no mention of word Self Destruction in the passage
2. The desire to feel powerful is always irrational. - It is mentioned in the passage directly so that can be neglected
3. Those involved in espionage do not have rational reasons for their behavior. - This supports the conclusion of the passage.
4. Espionage is rarely a successful way to gain revenge. - Out of scope
5. Risk-taking is a less frequent motivation for espionage than the desire to feel important - Out of scope
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Most people who betray their country through some form of 06 Nov 2013, 08:30
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Bumping for review and further discussion*.
New project from GMAT Club! Click here
Theory on Assumption Questions
E-gmat
inference-vs-assumption-146758.html?hilit=Inference
article-what-and-how-to-negate-6-exercise-questions-138510.html#p1119593
Souvik's article
gmatclub-verbal-attack-139074-40.html#p1125894
Kaplan
https://gmat.kaptest.com/2011/05/23/kapl ... C1289.dpbs
Veritasprep
https://www.gmatclub.com/forum/veritas-prep-resource-links-no-longer-available-399979.html#/2013/03 ... sumptions/
Knewton
https://gmatclub.com/blog/2011/08/the-de ... questions/
Mangoosh Gmat
https://magoosh.com/gmat/2013/assumption ... -the-gmat/
Manhattan Gmat
https://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/inde ... #more-6587
https://www.manhattangmat.com/articles/CR-assumption.cfm
Grockit
https://grockit.com/blog/gmat/2011/06/20 ... sumptions/
Gmatpill
https://www.gmatpill.com/practice-questi ... -question/
Gogmat
https://gogmat.com/blog/19-gmat-sample-q ... tion.html#.
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Most people who betray their country through some form of 18 Jan 2015, 17:57
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I really dont understand why the option is C... Because the premisis says "some form of espionage are driven by irrational desires" and "people were thinking rationally, they would not be involved in such self-destructive behavior."

C states that, Those involved in espionage do not have rational reasons for their behavior.- Check the 1st bolded part, some form of espionage, not all. How could we generally say that all forms of espionage do not have rational reasons?

While in A, it states, Self-destruction is the most frequent result of espionage.- check the rest of the bolded parts. It states self destruction is a cause of irrational thinking which is again a result of "some form of espionage" not all just a part.. And MOST in this option states again a part.

Please explain..
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Most people who betray their country through some form of 13 Oct 2025, 02:47
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C is wrong
It says 'Those who involved is espionage do not have rational reason for their behavior'
It is referring to all people involved but passage itself says Most are driven by irrational thinking not all, so it is incorrect.
A is the correct answer here
Tell me what you think on my view?
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