Scientific research will be properly channeled whenever those who deci

[quote="Bunuel"]Scientific research will be properly channeled whenever those who decide which research to fund give due weight to the scientific merits of all proposed research. But when government agencies control these funding decisions, political considerations play a major role in determining which research will be funded, and whenever political considerations play such a role, the inevitable result is that scientific research is not properly channeled.

Which one of the following can be properly inferred from the statements above?


(A) There is no proper role for political considerations to play in determining who will decide which scientific research to fund.

(B) It is inevitable that considerations of scientific merit will be neglected in decisions regarding the funding of scientific research.

(C) Giving political considerations a major role in determining which scientific research to fund is incompatible with giving proper weight to the scientific merits of proposed research.

(D) When scientific research is not properly channeled, governments tend to step in and take control of the process of choosing which research to fund.

(E) If a government does not control investment in basic scientific research, political consideration will inevitably be neglected in deciding which research to fund.


In an inference question, we have to assume that the information given in the stimulus is true. Any answer option that brings in new information can be easily ruled out.
The stimulus gives us enough information to understand the contrast between improper channeling of funds and proper channeling. We know that for funds to be properly channeled, they should be based on scientific merits; on the other hand, if they are majorly based on political considerations, they will be improperly channeled (notice the usage of a strong word like inevitable).

Answer option A says that political considerations don't have a proper role to play in deciding how the funds have to be channeled. We do not have information in the paragraph to decide this. We only know that when political considerations play a MAJOR role, the funds are improperly channeled. Who knows, if an honest and hard-working politician were to be at work, he/she might decide a proper role for political factors to decide channeling of funds. This is surmise and conjecture though, not mentioned in the statement. Answer option A can be ruled out.

Answer option B is a sweeping and strong statement about channeling of funds. No where does the stimulus mention that scientific merits are bound to be neglected. Answer option B can be ruled out.

Answer option C is the correct answer because it pieces together the two important observations that we made about the stimulus and uses the word incompatible. Incompatible tells us that there is this contrast between proper and improper channeling of funds. It does not bring in any new information as well.

Answer option D can be ruled out because it brings in new information about government intervention in a situation that is not mentioned in the paragraph.

Answer option E is tempting. It uses the words political consideration and inevitable to trick you because you would have seen these words in the same phrase in the stimulus. But answer option E is wrong because it talks about a situation that is not described in the stimulus.

Correct answer option - C.

My first attempt at a Verbal question on GMATClub. Hope it makes sense!

Gracias!