Certain gemstones are formed by magma, a material found deep

Not seeing how A is the answer here...man-made emeralds may not be considered as valuable but can still be a new source of profit to the company, even if marginal. I went with C but did not like that answer as well.

Certain gemstones are formed by magma, a material found deep inside the Earth, that has pushed toward the surface and solidified; others are created when superheated water and gases cool. When chemical action, heat, or pressure changes the existing structure of rocks, they may recrystallize to form gemstones such as emeralds. A large chemical company plans to create a new source of profits by applying certain of the chemicals it manufactures to specifically chosen rock samples, which would be a much less expensive way to produce emeralds than mining them.

which one of the following, if true, poses the most serious problem for the success of the company’s
plan?

A. Man-made emeralds will not be considered as valuable as naturally produced emeralds.
--> best choice

B. Natural emeralds are produced by heat and pressure much more frequently than by chemical action.
--> irrelevant

C. The types of material from which emeralds are formed are not found on the Earth’s surface.
--> okay so what they can dig up more, basically nothing relevant

D. Laboratory conditions are difficult to replicate in a large-scale factory.
--> not of much use

E. The gases that will mix with superheated water are so toxic that workers could suffer from a number of serious medical conditions if the handling of such gases is not strictly controlled.
--> irrelevant to conclusion

IMO A

First let us understand what we need to weaken:

A large chemical company plans to create a new source of profits by applying certain of the chemicals it manufactures to specifically chosen rock samples, which would be a much less expensive way to produce emeralds than mining them.

So, the bottom line is company thinks that there is a market for artificial emeralds. Let us see.

A. Man-made emeralds will not be considered as valuable as naturally produced emeralds. --> this clearly says there is no market.

B. Natural emeralds are produced by heat and pressure much more frequently than by chemical action. --> this is just another piece of info in addition to what is stated in the passage and company is not concerned with it.

C. The types of material from which emeralds are formed are not found on the Earth’s surface.--> this is just another piece of info in addition to what is stated in the passage and company is not concerned with it.

D. Laboratory conditions are difficult to replicate in a large-scale factory. --> this says 'difficult' but not impossible. So, there are chances for the company to manufacture.


E. The gases that will mix with superheated water are so toxic that workers could suffer from a number of serious medical conditions if the handling of such gases is not strictly controlled. --> irrelevant because company is not planning to manufacture emeralds this way. This could be a strong contender if it talked about chemical process rather than super heated water because those medical conditions would eat up company's profits.

So, except A, everything else is wrong.

still don't feel fully convinced why C cannot be the correct answer.. Could someone explain the reasoning involved here in detail

me too...Between C and A, I chose former for if we consider A to be true; the man made emerald can still be valuable and can be made profit of - the argument doesn't say that man made emerald is cheap. Final answer will never include an additional assumption that man made ermerald is cheap. On the other hand C makes it clear that the material to make emerald is not available.

Conclusion = A large chemical company plans to create a new source of profits by applying certain of the chemicals it manufactures to specifically chosen rock samples, which would be a much less expensive way to produce emeralds than mining them.

The author of the argument used price to support its conclusion. Choice C showed its problem. At the same time, although choice A talks about its profitability, whether the artificial gemstone have more valuable than natural one did not show anything relate to decreasing the cost of production.

Profits= Revenues - Cost

Company wants to increase profits by reducing costs and perhaps maintaining (or even increasing) revenues. However, if the new type of gemstones are inferior, they are likely to be shunned or at best draw command less revenues.

Thus we see that A is the best among the bunch in terms of factors that would cause profits not to be increased.

Cheers,
Der alte Fritz.

I was between A and D and chose A. why is D wrong? If lab conditions are not suiting industry conditions then there will be decline in profits. Can anybody please explain my error in reasoning ????

I miss this question.

Why C is wrong?

is C considered contradicting the evidence?

pls, help explain.

The sole purpose of the company is to gain profits by replicating the natural process of producing gems. The focus here is on the profits that the company is trying to make rather than on the process or way in which the gems would be produced.

A. Man-made emeralds will not be considered as valuable as naturally produced emeralds. - Since the passage is concerned about company making profits, hence this is the best option - Correct
B. Natural emeralds are produced by heat and pressure much more frequently than by chemical action. - Irrelevant information - Incorrect
C. The types of material from which emeralds are formed are not found on the Earth’s surface. - Company is planning to produce gems with chemicals - Incorrect
D. Laboratory conditions are difficult to replicate in a large-scale factory. - Irrelevant information - Incorrect
E. The gases that will mix with superheated water are so toxic that workers could suffer from a number of serious medical conditions if the handling of such gases is not strictly controlled. - Nothing mentioned about this in the passage - Out of scope - Incorrect

The sole purpose of the company is to gain profits by replicating the natural process of producing gems. The focus here is on the profits that the company is trying to make rather than on the process or way in which the gems would be produced.

A. Man-made emeralds will not be considered as valuable as naturally produced emeralds. - Since the passage is concerned about company making profits, hence this is the best option - Correct
B. Natural emeralds are produced by heat and pressure much more frequently than by chemical action. - Irrelevant information - Incorrect
C. The types of material from which emeralds are formed are not found on the Earth’s surface. - Company is planning to produce gems with chemicals - Incorrect
D. Laboratory conditions are difficult to replicate in a large-scale factory. - Irrelevant information - Incorrect
E. The gases that will mix with superheated water are so toxic that workers could suffer from a number of serious medical conditions if the handling of such gases is not strictly controlled. - Nothing mentioned about this in the passage - Out of scope - Incorrect

The word which absorbs our attention in the stem is "less expensive". This implicity states that the company is more concerned to profits. So if consumers dont consider such artificially manufactured emeralds valuable, there would be much less, if not NO, sale.
This option clearly undermines the company's plans.
+1 A.
Hope that helps.
-s

Since this is a weaking question, we can take the statement given in answer choices as true.



Posted from GMAT ToolKit

The point about any argument pertaining to profits is that the correct answer option will always talk about profitability. We can ignore the options that do not talk about profitability.

Re C - I didn't pick this option because
A) it's possible that the materials are found 10 cm below the earths surface. So if I use "outside knowledge", I'd figure it's not expensive
B) there is nothing mentioned about the cost implications of where the suitable material can be found.

Hope this helps.

Posted from GMAT ToolKit

Nice Point. How did you know that this is a fact and is not be challenged

Yep, seems that C is a trap...difficult to get does not mean impossible...