Paving materials deteriorate faster as they get hotter, and dark

Question

Paving materials deteriorate faster as they get hotter, and dark paving materials, such as asphalt, get hotter in summer than light-colored materials, such as concrete. Bard County has to make frequent repairs to its asphalt roads, so in order to save on its road maintenance costs it is considering a plan to repave the roads with concrete whenever complete repaving becomes necessary. Fortunately, repaving with concrete is no more expensive than repaving with asphalt.

Which of the following would it be most useful for the county to determine in assessing whether the plan would achieve its goal?

A. Whether, of all readily available light-colored paving materials, concrete stays the coolest in summer
B. Whether it takes longer to repave a road with concrete than with asphalt
C. Whether concrete roads present any safety hazards not presented by asphalt roads
D. How many roads in the county will need to be completely repaved over the next ten years
E. How the cost of repairing roads paved with concrete compares with the cost of repairing roads paved with asphalt

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Official Answer

E

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MartyMurray · Accepted Answer

Paving materials deteriorate faster as they get hotter, and dark paving materials, such as asphalt, get hotter in summer than light-colored materials, such as concrete. Bard County has to make frequent repairs to its asphalt roads, so in order to save on its road maintenance costs it is considering a plan to repave the roads with concrete whenever complete repaving becomes necessary. Fortunately, repaving with concrete is no more expensive than repaving with asphalt.

This question is a Plan question. So, since it doesn't include a stated conclusion, we have to find the implied conclusion, which will basically be that the goal of the plan will be achieved. The goal is the following:

to save on its road maintenance costs

So, the implied conclusion is the following:

By repaving roads with concrete whenever complete repaving becomes necessary, Bard County will save on its road maintenance costs.

We see that, the county has reasoned that, since concrete is affected less by heat and repaving with concrete is no more expensive than repaving with asphalt, the county will save money by repaving with concrete.

Which of the following would it be most useful for the county to determine in assessing whether the plan would achieve its goal?

This is an Evaluate question. So, the correct answer will be the one such that different answers to the question it presents will weaken or strengthen the case for believing the plan will work.

A. Whether, of all readily available light-colored paving materials, concrete stays the coolest in summer

Answers to this question won't affect the argument since, regardless of whether concrete stays the coolest, it should stay cooler than the asphalt it replaces.

Eliminate.

B. Whether it takes longer to repave a road with concrete than with asphalt

Answers to this question won't affect the argument since the goal is to save money, not time, and since, regardless of how long it takes to repave with concrete, the passage has already stated as fact that "repaving with concrete is no more expensive than repaving with asphalt."

So, regardless of whether it takes longer to repave with concrete, the county would by doing so spend no more than it would by repaving with asphalt.

Eliminate.

C. Whether concrete roads present any safety hazards not presented by asphalt roads

The stated goal is "to save on its road maintenance costs."

So, the answers to this question won't affect the strength of the argument since, even if concrete roads present some safety hazards not presented by asphalt roads, the maintenance costs would not be affected by that fact.

Eliminate.

D. How many roads in the county will need to be completely repaved over the next ten years

This choice is tricky because the number of roads that need to be completely repaved will affect the county's road maintenance costs.

At the same time, we can see why this choice is incorrect by noticing that the conclusion is not about total costs. It's about saving on costs.

Regardless of how high the total maintenance costs will be, repaving with concrete could make them lower than they would have been.

So, the answers to this question will not affect the strength of the argument since, regardless of how many roads will need to be repaved, the county could still save by repaving with concrete instead of asphalt.

Eliminate.

E. How the cost of repairing roads paved with concrete compares with the cost of repairing roads paved with asphalt

This choice is interesting because it brings up a new factor. We already know that repaving with concrete is no more expensive than repaving with asphalt, and we know that concrete road will likely need fewer repairs than asphalt roads, but what about the cost of repairs to concrete roads?

If the answer to the question presented by this choice is that it costs more to repair concrete roads, then the case for the plan is weakened because the greater costs of repairs  will offset, and possibly exceed, the savings associated with having to repair less frequently.

On the other hand, if the answer is that it costs the same or less to repair concrete roads, then the case for the plan is strengthened since that information helps to confirm that the county will save by repaving with concrete.

So, knowing how the costs of repairing compare helps with determining whether the plan would achieve its goal.

Keep.

Correct answer:  B

Yes2GMAT · Answer

I chose option E) but the option appears to be so vague. It is quite easy for people to conflate the meanings of repairing and repaving.

MartyMurray · Answer

It's not vague though, really.

Repaving the entire roads and repairing them are definitely two different actions.

Raman109 · Answer

Understanding the argument - 
Paving materials deteriorate faster as they get hotter, and dark paving materials, such as asphalt, get hotter in summer than light-colored materials, such as concrete. - Background Info.

Bard County has to make frequent repairs to its asphalt roads, so in order to save on its road maintenance costs it is considering a plan to repave the roads with concrete whenever complete repaving becomes necessary. Fortunately, repaving with concrete is no more expensive than repaving with asphalt. - 
Goal - save on its road maintenance costs
Plan - epave the roads with concrete whenever complete repaving becomes necessary.

Which of the following would it be most useful for the county to determine in assessing whether the plan would achieve its goal?

A. Whether, of all readily available light-colored paving materials, concrete stays the coolest in summer - it doesn't matter. Irrelevant.

B. Whether it takes longer to repave a road with concrete than with asphalt - time is not important here. For us the important is the cost and we know form the argument that repaving with concrete is no more expensive than repaving with asphalt. out of scope.

C. Whether concrete roads present any safety hazards not presented by asphalt roads - safety hazards are out of scope.

D. How many roads in the county will need to be completely repaved over the next ten years - out of scope.

E. How the cost of repairing roads paved with concrete compares with the cost of repairing roads paved with asphalt - This is importnat. Because if the cost of REPAIRING (and not repaving) concrete is more, then the plan will not succeded to meet the goal but if its otherwise, then ok.

shreyans4757583 · Answer

Premise - Paving materials deteriorate faster as they get hotter, and dark paving materials, such as asphalt, get hotter in summer than light-colored materials, such as concrete. Bard County has to make frequent repairs to its asphalt roads,

Plan - so in order to save on its road maintenance costs it is considering a plan to repave the roads with concrete whenever complete repaving becomes necessary. Fortunately, repaving with concrete is no more expensive than repaving with asphalt.

Argument Breakdown - Dark pavement deteriorate faster than light-coloured materials such as concrete because all paving materials deteriorate faster when they get hotter. Dark pavement’s heat absorption rate is more than concrete.

Gap Analysis -

1) Concrete might be more prone to damage in other weather conditions.

2) Concrete might be more prone to damage to general wear and tear.

Which of the following would it be most useful for the county to determine in assessing whether the plan would achieve its goal?

A. Whether, of all readily available light-colored paving materials, concrete stays the coolest in summer

- Doesn’t impact because even if there are such materials, concrete still might result in cost reduction.

B. Whether it takes longer to repave a road with concrete than with asphalt

- even if it does we don’t know whether extra time equates to extra cost

C. Whether concrete roads present any safety hazards not presented by asphalt roads

- Even if they do, we are only concerned with costs.

D. How many roads in the county will need to be completely repaved over the next ten years

- We are concerned with road maintenance costs and anyways the price for pavement is the same as asphalt.

E. How the cost of repairing roads paved with concrete compares with the cost of repairing roads paved with asphalt.

- Repairing the concrete roads after damage might be costlier than doing so for asphalt. Repaving and repairing the road are two different activities. Correct Answer

DonBosco7 · Answer

Try to replace  "repairing"  with  "maintaining"  in option E and you will get why E is correct !

E. How the cost of  maintaining  roads paved with concrete compares with the cost of  maintaining  roads paved with asphalt.

As Mr. Marty said above "maintenance" is an offsetting factor.

divyutdebbie · Answer

You are right; there's mildly confusing terminology. GMAT questions always have similar terminology used for meaning the same thing.

TALHA23 · Answer

shouldnt the answer be A like E option seems so out of place here there is only one line in end of passage concerning with cost of it when looking at passage tells otherway around

guddo · Answer

I’d say (E) feels less obvious only because most of the passage discusses temperature and deterioration. But  the stated goal is to reduce maintenance costs , not simply to find the coolest paving material.

(A) only tells us whether concrete is the coolest light-colored material. That does not tell us whether the plan will save money.

(E) directly addresses the missing cost information: even if concrete needs fewer repairs, those repairs might be  much more expensive . So comparing repair costs is necessary to judge whether the plan will actually reduce maintenance costs.

egmat · Answer

Hi TALHA23,

Cost gets one line, which is exactly why it is easy to skip past. But that line is the goal.

Start from what the plan has to achieve:  "in order to save on its road maintenance costs."  The county is not hunting for the coolest material, it is trying to spend less. An Evaluate question asks which answer, whichever way it turns out, tells us whether that goal is met. So the winning choice has to bear on money.

Why (A) cannot.  Read its scope:  "of all readily available light-colored paving materials, concrete stays the coolest."  The plan swaps asphalt for concrete and nothing else, and the passage already tells us concrete stays cooler than asphalt. Whether some third light material is cooler still does not touch a choice the county is not making. Either answer to (A) leaves the plan exactly where it was.

Why (E) is the point.  The cost line covers  repaving  only, and says repaving with concrete costs no more. It says nothing about  repairing . The savings argument rests entirely on concrete needing fewer repairs, so if each concrete repair costs far more, the savings disappear. (E) is what settles that.

Turn one knob on (A).  Suppose it read "whether concrete stays cooler than  asphalt ." Still useless, because the passage already told us it does. There is no version of (A) that moves the argument.

Answer: E

Paving materials deteriorate faster as they get hotter, and dark

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Paving materials deteriorate faster as they get hotter, and dark