Some X-Ray Machines at Cleveland clinic require certain upgrades. Howe

Option D mentions the word 'ESPECIALLY'. It means mental alertness is generally lower in night for everyone, ESPECIALLY for people not accustomed to working at night.
Option C says MORE blackouts occur between MIDNIGHT and 8 a.m. It means blackouts occur in the daytime too. Also, it is nowhere mentioned that the upgrading requires electricity. We need to assume that upgrading requires electricity. Hence, It doesn't weaken the argument.

A has something important to say here. If you are not paid more in the night, which is inconvenient working hours, then why bother in doing your best? = Effectiveness will be reduced.

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Pay and cost is not really relevant to “efficiency”

I believe the key to choosing D over C as the “best answer that most weakens” is, as someone mentioned above, recognizing the fact that there may be almost just as many blackouts during the day. What does “more” blackouts mean? Are there many blackouts during the day as well, and only several “more” blackouts at night?

Also, the other suspicious “clue” regarding answer C is the times chosen: 12 to 8. The answer conveniently leaves out the time period from 10 to 12, about which we know nothing about. We have to start thinking about things such as how long does it take to fix the machine and why can’t they just fix the machines during that 2 hour window when there isn’t more blackouts.

With respect to D, we are told that these technicians have a hard time during the day scheduling the repairs. If they are trying to schedule the repairs during the day, then common sense would say they must be around during the day. If they are around during the day trying to schedule repairs, it’s less of a logical leap to say they are working during these times.

In the end, since it’s not an official question, I guess there is no point torturing the answers to death. The newer 700+ questions in the O.G. seem to require a similar “common sense” approach in search of the “best answer”.

Although they are generally logically “tighter” than this question.....

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Ka boom this one thing about understanding and going back to the passage and never too lose site of the passage , cut to the chase it's quite obvious that if we had it had to be plugged into the electricity however this thing isn't explicitily stated out in passage hence i eliminated C (may be these alien creatures use solar power batteries ) i nailed down D because it was stated the repairing is highly mental da/unting and if the level of concentration is pretty doen for the technicians the it's better to complete the work in the morning thus IMO D
how to weed out other option it's easy people might just right out of context i just concentrated on the one' s that had the final2 dilemma the most common in any gmat questions

IMHO, there is no information linked to blackouts or electricity in the prompt, so logically we cannot link it ourselves and shouldn't as it is out of scope. Perhaps, there are other solutions to blackouts such as generators and therefore we shouldn't take them into account.

 

­Hi,
Nowhere its mentioned in the passage that upgradation work requires electricity. They may have some backup plan just for visibility. The premise is based on DIFFICULTY and MENTAL TAXING. At night, Technicians can carry out their work with mental peace even if there are blackouts.

Choice D states that mental alertness is lower at night (for everybody) and ESPECIALLY for people not used to working at night - this implies that alertness is lower even for people WHO ARE USED TO WORKING AT NIGHT. Thus this choice exploits on the premise that upgrades are mentally taxing anyway, and on top of that the lower alertness at night would make the job more difficult. Choice D is definitively correct.

Choice C - I also thought about this for 20-30 secs during attempting, but there is no information in the passage that allows choice C to weaken the argument - without any unwarranted assumption.

 

­hey, this is the way i eliminated option C: fixing a machine at night (or at any time of the day) doesnt NECESSARILY mean that electricity is needed, considering it's nowhere mentioned in the passage, the need for electricity to fix an x ray machine. you can not assume that electricty is needed to fix a machine, unless its explicity or implicitly implied in the passages. 
kudos:) 

 

guys, how in the world can we infer that these technicians are the ones that are not accustomed to work in night, when it is no where mentioned in the premise. I neglected D just because of this reason.

­Some X-Ray Machines at Cleveland clinic require certain upgrades. However, the work of upgrading the 20 X-Ray Machines is difficult and mentally taxing. Physicians require X ray reports during the day, making it difficult for the X-Ray Machine technician to set aside time for upgrading each of the X-Ray Machines. Therefore, the most efficient time to upgrade the X-Ray Machines is between 10 p.m. and 8 a.m. when the X-Ray Machines
would be free.

Which of the following, if true, argues most strongly against the view that upgrades could be done more efficiently by scheduling them at night ?

A. X-Ray Machine technicians are generally paid the same when they work during the night than when they work during the day
Not important how they get paid.

B. Energy costs in hospitals are greatly lower at night than they are during the day.
Does not matter.

C. More blackouts occur between midnight and eight o'clock in the morning than at any other time.
Machines would already be off when this things is under maintenance so blackouts do not matter.

D. Mental alertness is lower in the late night than during the day, especially in people not accustomed to working at night.
Statement mentioned it a difficult and mentally taxing task so mental alertness is required. so, thats true.

E. Over the course of a year, hospital's X-Ray Machines will require periodical checks and upkeep
No need