SafeZone mosquito repellant has been shown in laboratory settings to

Question

SafeZone mosquito repellant has been shown in laboratory settings to be effective for twelve hours against the female anopheles mosquito, the only mosquito that transmits malaria. SafeZone, however, is not effective against mosquitoes that do not transmit malaria. The only instance in which SafeZone does not repel the female anopheles mosquito is if the mosquito can detect any blood, however small the amount, on a person’s body. Therefore, assuming one does not have any blood on their skin before applying SafeZone, one will not be able to catch malaria for up to twelve hours.

Which of the following, if true, would argue most against the use of SafeZone in areas in which malaria is endemic?

A) SafeZone mosquito repellant has been shown to cause irritation that may result in a mild rash.
B) The culex mosquito, a different species of mosquito, is found in many areas where the anopheles mosquito is found.
C) The male Anopheles mosquito also feeds on human blood and is active at the same time as the female.
D) Once a person has contracted malaria, he or she may experience both bleeding gums and a bloody nose.
E) Some mosquitoes, after biting a person covered in SafeZone, can go on to bite a person not covered in SafeZone.

Harley1980 · Accepted Answer

Hello  dominicraj

I agree that this one is really tough. I was really hesitated between A and C.

In argument we have interesting fact: "The only instance in which SafeZone does not repel the female anopheles mosquito is if the mosquito can detect any blood, however small the amount, on a person’s body."

This is potential weak place. B, D and E have nothing common with blood so they are out.
A - when you have a rush sometimes you can rip you skin and there will be present blood. But it only sometimes and answer A says about mild rush. So it is good contender but not ideal.

C - male of mosquito feeds on human blood. It looks like not correct answer but let think about it. Mosquito feed on blood but making a hole in human skin. This is extremely small hole but this hole should bleed a little and from argument we know that for repellen't malfunction we need " however small  the amount of blood".

dominicraj · Answer

Hi,

I am unable to figure how C weakens the argument. male being around female is not going to aid malaria by any means.

@ Harley:I would like others to discuss it before you post the OE though. maybe you can share your personal opinion.

Regards,
Dom.

kelvind13 · Answer

You cannot bleed from a mosquito bite, Although you could have blood on you if you swat the male mosquito on you after he has drown blood.

on another note, its not mentioned in the question but is rather common knowledge, the male anophles mosquito, doesn't infact feed on blood but on nectar from plants, so is unlikely to cause either holes in your skin or blood on your person if you swat it after he has drawn blood (Which he wouldn't do).

I think it should be 'A'

anupamadw · Answer

Hi All

I can only think about C as follows:
C) The male Anopheles mosquito also feeds on human blood and is active at the same time as the female.
According to premise female anopheles mosquito, the only mosquito that transmits malaria.
SafeZone is not effective against mosquitoes that do not transmit malaria. i.e. SafeZone is not effective against male Anopheles mosquito.
So male Anopheles mosquito can bite a person, even though person has SafeZone on his skin --> giving out blood ( however small the amount)--> chance for Female Anopheles mosquito to bite & causing Malaria

HUH....

GeneraleCanaglia · Answer

Of course it's true that male mosquitos don't feed blood, but, as a general rule of GMAT, you can't take into account informations don't provided by the question itself and, if one sentence (which the question required to considered true) says "the sun is cold" we have to make decision in a world where the sun is cold.
By the way, i think that A answer doesn't make sense, as "mild rush" can't make you start bleeding at all.
IMHO, the reason why C is the correct answer is not because male mosquito could let you bleeding after his bite (letting the female bite you as well), but simply because all the passage is about the effectiveness of the product on female mosquito, whereas the male are never mentioned, so we can't know if that product would have some effect on male (actually, being this the answer, all the discussion about blood on the skin surface serves to distract a little bit)

zoezhuyan · Answer

Hi  mikemcgarry

SafeZone mosquito repellant has been shown in laboratory settings to be effective for twelve hours against the female anopheles mosquito, the only mosquito that transmits malaria. SafeZone, however, is not effective against mosquitoes that do not transmit malaria. The only instance in which SafeZone does not repel the female anopheles mosquito is if the mosquito can detect any blood, however small the amount, on a person’s body. Therefore, assuming one does not have any blood on their skin before applying SafeZone, one will not be able to catch malaria for up to twelve hours.

Which of the following, if true, would argue most against the use of SafeZone in areas in which malaria is endemic?

A) SafeZone mosquito repellant has been shown to cause irritation that may result in a mild rash.
B) The culex mosquito, a different species of mosquito, is found in many areas where the anopheles mosquito is found.
C) The male Anopheles mosquito also feeds on human blood and is active at the same time as the female.
D) Once a person has contracted malaria, he or she may experience both bleeding gums and a bloody nose.
E) Some mosquitoes, after biting a person covered in SafeZone, can go on to bite a person not covered in SafeZone.

Hmmm, would you please explain choice C further?
I have no clue why C is correct.
AS in prompt,  against the female anopheles mosquito, the     only     mosquito that transmits malaria.  
Is my interpretation correct that only female anopheles mosquito transmits malaria, while male ones do not transmit malaria?
if male ones do not transmit, even as answer choice C states, people won't get malaria, right?

Honestly speaking, I have no idea which answer choice is right.

Please help

thanks in advance

Zoe

nightblade354 · Answer

Hi Zoe,

Here is Harley's explanation:

"I agree that this one is really tough. I was really hesitated between A and C.

In argument we have interesting fact: "The only instance in which SafeZone does not repel the female anopheles mosquito is if the mosquito can detect any blood, however small the amount, on a person’s body."

This is potential weak place. B, D and E have nothing common with blood so they are out.
A - when you have a rush sometimes you can rip you skin and there will be present blood. But it only sometimes and answer A says about mild rush. So it is good contender but not ideal.

C - male of mosquito feeds on human blood. It looks like not correct answer but let think about it. Mosquito feed on blood but making a hole in human skin. This is extremely small hole but this hole should bleed a little and from argument we know that for repellen't malfunction we need "however small the amount of blood"."

gmatexam439 · Answer

Hi  nightblade354 ,

I don't agree with the above explanation. The passage exclusively states that "ONLY" female mosquito causes malaria. The male/other mosquito's bite is out of question. Even a small rash can cause "small" amount of blood to pop out of skin.

Hi  mikemcgarry ,

Please throw some light on this one. I am unable to comprehend the logic behind choosing C.

Awaiting your response.

Regards

nightblade354 · Answer

Hi  gmatexam439 ,

I agree there are flaws in the OA/OE. Chief among the fact that the female mosquitoes not infected with malaria will perform the same function as the males. Hence, this answer does not help us. I agree that A is better, as it gives yet another reason why it won't be effective (though it is a MILD rash, so scratching/bleeding isn't a given). Zoe wanted an OE, so I gave her Harley's answer.

hellosanthosh2k2 · Answer

Answer should be C.

Choice C says "The male Anopheles mosquito also feeds on human blood and is active  at the same time  as the female." -   at the same time   is key here.
If both male and female are active at same time, and if male can feed on human blood by dripping a hole, then it gives the female a very good chance to infect malaria.

mfgaines · Answer

Wow. Is it certainly true that C is the answer or is that up for debate here? I’ve spent the last few months studying the LSAT actually (still studying it) and my reaction was 1. This is a bad LR Question and 2. If I had to choose, go with E.

It’s a “Weaken” Question, for sure, which generally means attacking the Conclusion which is obviously the last sentence. But what gets me is the use of “only” (in “the only instance...”) because that’s a tip-off to a conditional statement....so...

And then you have the Stem which emphasizes “in areas where it’s endemic” .... to me that clinched the answer as E.

The best argument for not using SafeZone in areas with a Malaria epidemic is that not everyone may be using it and other mosquitos (some covers the malaria causing type too, right?) go on to bite others without SafeZone...potentially causing malaria among the people in the area anyways.

I mean, that’s just a gut feeling though, this is a really bizarre question and the first non-LSAT question of the sort I’ve looked at yet....the rest of them don’t look this way, right?

Sent from my iPhone using GMAT Club Forum

nightblade354 · Answer

As you can see above, there is some debate over this question. Any good GMAT question will have one clear answer. Please remember to stick to GOOD sources on the forum, otherwise you might be dissapointed.

Tpral · Answer

SafeZone mosquito repellant has been shown in laboratory settings to be effective for twelve hours against the female anopheles mosquito, the only mosquito that transmits malaria. SafeZone, however, is not effective against mosquitoes that do not transmit malaria. The only instance in which SafeZone does not repel the female anopheles mosquito is if the mosquito can detect any blood, however small the amount, on a person’s body. Therefore, assuming one does not have any blood on their skin before applying SafeZone, one will not be able to catch malaria for up to twelve hours.

Which of the following, if true, would argue most against the use of SafeZone in areas in which malaria is endemic?

A) SafeZone mosquito repellant has been shown to cause irritation that may result in a mild rash.
 SafeZone -> Mild rash -> additional assumption "mild rash" cause blood -> Female mosquito attracted = SAFEZONE doesn't work
  BUT  we bring outside assumption, we are unsure that mild rash -> Blood = might weaken or not   50% accuracy

B) The culex mosquito, a different species of mosquito, is found in many areas where the anopheles mosquito is found.
 OOS, no link between Culex Mosquito and Malaria. No impact of prevention of malaria by SafeZone

C) The male Anopheles mosquito also feeds on human blood and is active at the same time as the female.
  Male Anopheles -> Bite human -> blood ( 100% sure, you can try) -> Female anopheles -> Malaria - SAFEZONE doesn't work   100% accuracy

D) Once a person has contracted malaria, he or she may experience both bleeding gums and a bloody nose.
 OOS, person already having malaria n o link with prevention of malaria and Safezone

E) Some mosquitoes, after biting a person covered in SafeZone, can go on to bite a person not covered in SafeZone.
 Only Male Anophele attacks people with SafeZone -> Male Anophele = No Malaria -> If Male bite some else after with Safezone no risk to get Malaria as only female bring Malaria.  No impact of prevention of malaria by SafeZone

KarishmaB · Answer

In my opinion, none of the answer options work.

We need to argue against using Safezone in malaria areas. So we need to say that SafeZone would be ineffective in preventing malaria.

A) SafeZone mosquito repellant has been shown to cause irritation that may result in a mild rash.

It doesn't say that SafeZone may not be effective against malaria. Also, the option says 'mild rash' which indicates a mild side effect. We cannot rule out SafeZone because of it.

B) The culex mosquito, a different species of mosquito, is found in many areas where the anopheles mosquito is found.

No info on culex. Irrelevant.

C) The male Anopheles mosquito also feeds on human blood and is active at the same time as the female.

Again, male Anopheles mosquito is irrelevant. Though it does say that it feeds at the same time as female, it doesn't say that it leaves blood on human skin. I wouldn't assume that there would be blood on human skin.

D) Once a person has contracted malaria, he or she may experience both bleeding gums and a bloody nose.

What happens after a person contracts malaria is irrelevant. We need to avoid malaria.

E) Some mosquitoes, after biting a person covered in SafeZone, can go on to bite a person not covered in SafeZone.

We don't have enough information to understand the relevance of this.

Thelegend2631 · Answer

So you ( Magoosh ) are telling that Rash will , no matter what, never creates a slightest of hole for blood but mosquito bite will. Dumb. I wasted 3 mins on this question and 2 mins on this post.

AlwaysImproving · Answer

Let me try to explain with an example. Situation: Mr. X applies Safezone ----> Male anopheles mosquito bites our poor Mr. X, causing him to bleed ----> The female anopheles mosquito comes in to infect Mr. X with Malaria. A match made in Heaven! Too bad for Mr. X though.

abhishekujjawal · Answer

This is a total logic fail, just because male mosquito will bite and make hole to suck blood then female mosquito will bite does not make any sense, in that case what if rashes as per the option A attracts ants and they will bite and blood will be there so that female mosquito bite and sends malaria virus in.

I can accept ans to be C but there should be some relation with that.

I can accept ans to be C but there should be some relation with that.

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SafeZone mosquito repellant has been shown in laboratory settings to

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