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Bunuel
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The consumption of tobacco in the country has fallen drastically in 01 Oct 2025, 01:27
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D
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75% (01:03) correct 25% (01:15) wrong based on 370 sessions

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The consumption of tobacco in the country has fallen drastically in the past one year. During the same period of time, the government has been running a sustained advertising campaign to educate citizens about the ill effects of chewing tobacco. Thus, the government’s advertising campaign has proved to be a resounding success.

Which of the following options most weakens the argument above?

(A) The government has had to spend a huge amount of money on this advertising campaign, an amount that it will eventually recover from the general public in the form of new taxes.

(B) More and more tobacco consumers in the past one year have now shifted to consuming relatively harmless substances such as chewing gum.

(C) The consumption of alcoholic drinks has increased in the country in the past one year.

(D) Tobacco prices have more than tripled in the country in the past one year.

(E) All the major tobacco companies are still in business in the country


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D
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The consumption of tobacco in the country has fallen drastically in 01 Oct 2025, 01:35
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The argument says: tobacco consumption fell → must be because of the government’s advertising campaign.

To weaken, we need an **alternate cause** for the decline.

(A) Talks about cost of campaign → irrelevant to consumption drop.
(B) Shifting to chewing gum → only explains what they did instead, but not why consumption fell.
(C) Alcohol consumption rising → irrelevant.
(D) Tobacco prices tripled → strong alternate explanation; drop may be due to higher prices, not ads.
(E) Companies still in business → irrelevant.

Answer: D
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The consumption of tobacco in the country has fallen drastically in 01 Oct 2025, 04:43
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Bunuel
The consumption of tobacco in the country has fallen drastically in the past one year. During the same period of time, the government has been running a sustained advertising campaign to educate citizens about the ill effects of chewing tobacco. Thus, the government’s advertising campaign has proved to be a resounding success.

Which of the following options most weakens the argument above?

(A) The government has had to spend a huge amount of money on this advertising campaign, an amount that it will eventually recover from the general public in the form of new taxes.

(B) More and more tobacco consumers in the past one year have now shifted to consuming relatively harmless substances such as chewing gum.

(C) The consumption of alcoholic drinks has increased in the country in the past one year.

(D) Tobacco prices have more than tripled in the country in the past one year.

(E) All the major tobacco companies are still in business in the country


­
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The consumption of tobacco is declining drastically in the past one year.

During the same period, the government has started an education campaign among citizens about the harmful effects of tobacco consumption. The author, ends that the success is due to government campaign.

We need to weaken. Thus, find a cause which contradicts the purpose of the government campaign. Let’s dive into the options

(A) The government has had to spend a huge amount of money on this advertising campaign, an amount that it will eventually recover from the general public in the form of new taxes.

How the government recovers the amount for advertising campaign is immaterial. It can be either through taxes or through the funding from corporate sectors etc. This doesn’t weaken the argument. Hence, wrong.

(B) More and more tobacco consumers in the past one year have now shifted to consuming relatively harmless substances such as chewing gum.

This actually seems like a supporting factor for the argument. Because, this change may or may not be due to government’s advertising campaign which might have contributed to this downfall. So, we cannot conclude anything concrete from it. Hence, wrong.

(C) The consumption of alcoholic drinks has increased in the country in the past one year.

Nowhere is tobacco consumption related with the alcoholic consumption. Hence, irrelevant.

(D) Tobacco prices have more than tripled in the country in the past one year.

If the tobacco prices have tripled, this could have led to a huge dent in the savings. Thus, rather than the government campaign, the price rise might have triggered the downfall in consumption. Hence, correct.

(E) All the major tobacco companies are still in business in the country.

This is an irrelevant option. Hence, eliminating it.

Option D
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The consumption of tobacco in the country has fallen drastically in Updated on: 01 Oct 2025, 07:53
Originally posted by literaryzeitgeist on 01 Oct 2025, 06:27.
Last edited by literaryzeitgeist on 01 Oct 2025, 07:53, edited 3 times in total.
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Bunuel
The consumption of tobacco in the country has fallen drastically in the past one year. During the same period of time, the government has been running a sustained advertising campaign to educate citizens about the ill effects of chewing tobacco. Thus, the government’s advertising campaign has proved to be a resounding success.

Which of the following options most weakens the argument above?

(A) The government has had to spend a huge amount of money on this advertising campaign, an amount that it will eventually recover from the general public in the form of new taxes.

(B) More and more tobacco consumers in the past one year have now shifted to consuming relatively harmless substances such as chewing gum.

(C) The consumption of alcoholic drinks has increased in the country in the past one year.

(D) Tobacco prices have more than tripled in the country in the past one year.

(E) All the major tobacco companies are still in business in the country


­
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Let us first dissect the argument.

The consumption of tobacco in the country has fallen drastically in the past one year. During the same period of time, the government has been running a sustained advertising campaign to educate citizens about the ill effects of chewing tobacco. Thus, the government’s advertising campaign has proved to be a resounding success.

Premise 1 - The consumption of tobacco in the country has fallen drastically in the past one year.
Premise 2 - During the same period of time, the government has been running a sustained advertising campaign to educate citizens about the ill effects of chewing tobacco.
Conclusion - Thus, the government’s advertising campaign has proved to be a resounding success.

Just because two events happen together does not necessarily mean one caused the other. That is a major flaw in this argument. The argument's conclusion assumes that the campaign caused the tobacco consumption to fall.

Because we need to weaken this argument, we are to be on the lookout for an answer choice that casts doubt on the conclusion, one that proves that the campaign did not necessarily cause a fall in tobacco consumption, although the fall did happen. Let us now look at the answer choices:

(A) The government has had to spend a huge amount of money on this advertising campaign, an amount that it will eventually recover from the general public in the form of new taxes. - So what? - This in no way impacts the conclusion. Just because more money gets spend does not mean the campaign won't succeed or that the campaign did not cause a fall in tobacco consumption. ELIMINATE

(B) More and more tobacco consumers in the past one year have now shifted to consuming relatively harmless substances such as chewing gum. - Alright? But that could still be because of the campaign, right? - OUT

(C) The consumption of alcoholic drinks has increased in the country in the past one year. - What does that have got to do with the campaign against chewing tobacco? So the campaign had an impact? Definitely not a weakener. - OUT

(D) Tobacco prices have more than tripled in the country in the past one year. - YAY! - Let us hold on to this choice! This tells us why the consumption could have fallen, casting doubt on the conclusion.

(E) All the major tobacco companies are still in business in the country. - This does not mean campaign had no impact if the consumption still fell, and we know it did as per the argument.

Answer is (D)

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The consumption of tobacco in the country has fallen drastically in 01 Oct 2025, 06:31
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literaryzeitgeist

Let us first dissect the argument.

The consumption of tobacco in the country has fallen drastically in the past one year. During the same period of time, the government has been running a sustained advertising campaign to educate citizens about the ill effects of chewing tobacco. Thus, the government’s advertising campaign has proved to be a resounding success.

Premise 1 - The consumption of tobacco in the country has fallen drastically in the past one year.
Premise 2 - During the same period of time, the government has been running a sustained advertising campaign to educate citizens about the ill effects of chewing tobacco.
Conclusion - Thus, the government’s advertising campaign has proved to be a resounding success.

Just because two events happen together does not necessarily mean one caused the other. That is a major flaw in this argument. The argument's conclusion assumes that the campaign caused the tobacco consumption to fall.

Because we need to weaken this argument, we are to be on the lookout for an answer choice that casts doubt on the conclusion, one that proves that the campaign did not necessarily cause a fall in tobacco consumption, although the fall did happen. Let us now look at the answer choices:

(A) The government has had to spend a huge amount of money on this advertising campaign, an amount that it will eventually recover from the general public in the form of new taxes. - So what? - This in no way impacts the conclusion. Just because more money gets spend does not mean the campaign won't succeed or that the campaign did not cause a fall in tobacco consumption. ELIMINATE

(B) More and more tobacco consumers in the past one year have now shifted to consuming relatively harmless substances such as chewing gum. - Alright? But that could still be because of the campaign, right? - OUT

(C) The consumption of alcoholic drinks has increased in the country in the past one year. - What does that have got to do with the campaign against chewing tobacco? So the campaign had an impact? Definitely not a weakener. - OUT

(D) Tobacco prices have more than tripled in the country in the past one year. - YAY! - Let us hold on to this argument! This tells us why the consumption could have fallen, casting doubt on the conclusion.

(E) All the major tobacco companies are still in business in the country. - This does not mean campaign had no impact if the consumption still fell, and we know it did as per the argument.

Answer is (D)
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The consumption of tobacco in the country has fallen drastically in 01 Oct 2025, 07:21
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D should be the answer as it offers the strongest weakener by citing alternate reason to get the the same conclusion i.e. The consumption of tobacco in the country has fallen drastically in the past one year.
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The consumption of tobacco in the country has fallen drastically in 01 Nov 2025, 01:30
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Bunuel
The consumption of tobacco in the country has fallen drastically in the past one year. During the same period of time, the government has been running a sustained advertising campaign to educate citizens about the ill effects of chewing tobacco. Thus, the government’s advertising campaign has proved to be a resounding success.

Which of the following options most weakens the argument above?

(A) The government has had to spend a huge amount of money on this advertising campaign, an amount that it will eventually recover from the general public in the form of new taxes.

(B) More and more tobacco consumers in the past one year have now shifted to consuming relatively harmless substances such as chewing gum.

(C) The consumption of alcoholic drinks has increased in the country in the past one year.

(D) Tobacco prices have more than tripled in the country in the past one year.

(E) All the major tobacco companies are still in business in the country­
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Official Explanation



Answer: D

This argument is testing you on Causality. The argument assumes that there can be no other reason (other than government’s advertising campaign) for the drop in tobacco consumption in the country. Option D provides you one such reason and so, weakens the argument.

(A) The point still stands that the reason for the fall in tobacco consumption in the country could be the government’s advertising campaign. How the government decides to recover this money is outside the scope of the argument.

(B) What new products the tobacco consumers have shifted does not make any difference to the causality mentioned in the argument.

(C) Alcoholic drinks are outside the scope of the argument.

(E) There could be several reasons for this, but this has no bearing on the causality mentioned in the argument.
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