The Dear One Baby Carrier is the safest and most comfortable baby carrier available today. The hard plastic exterior retains its shape despite minor impacts, protecting baby from the outside, while the thick interior “comfort pad” acts as a shock absorber inside. The interior design has been comfort-tested by thousands of infants, and the exterior handles have been designed with the arms and hands of caring parents in mind. Perhaps best of all, the Dear One Baby Carrier converts easily from an at-large carrier to a car seat, reducing the risk to baby posed by being shifted from one carrier to another.

Which of the following, if true, would most undermine the claim to safety made on behalf of the Dear One Baby Carrier?

A. An infant safety commission announces that most dropping accidents involving infants occur when a parent is the primary caretaker.
B. A survey conducted by a popular magazine reveals that a large number of parents are still not aware of the danger posed to infants by putting their carriers in the front seat.
C. A parents’ group endorses the Dear One Baby Carrier as the most convenient baby carrier to take on vacation.
D. A manufacturer adds a “danger of suffocation” label to the bedding used for the interior of the Dear One Baby Carrier.
E. An article written by a pediatrician states that at-large baby carriers do not safely double as car seats.

Between option D and E,

I feel that Option D is just a warning message. The warning does not undermine the conclusion that Dear One is the safest carrier available.

IMO :- Option E is the correct answer.

I think option E is the correct answer. Because it directly contradicts the claim made in the manufacturer.

CHOICE E, An article written by a pediatrician states that at-large baby carriers do not safely double as car seats, directly undermines the statement made by the company that the baby carrier would work as a car seat and would reduce the overall risk. The pediatrician's statement suggests that after conversion to car seat, the child is at a larger risk.

CHOICE D, A manufacturer adds a “danger of suffocation” label to the bedding used for the interior of the Dear One Baby Carrier, subtly provides the user with information which can be used to keep the baby safe.


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Consider the following from the question

the thick interior “comfort pad” acts as a shock absorber inside. - The interior pad states, only comfort and not anything on security

The interior design has been comfort-tested by thousands of infants - Once again the interior design talks of comfort test - Nothing on safety.

best of all, the Dear One Baby Carrier converts easily from an at-large carrier to a car seat, reducing the risk to baby posed by being shifted from one carrier to another. - The author states that the BEST of all is the conversion from an at-large carrier to a car seat and what all risks it eliminates. Choice E would directly negate the biggest positive point of the product.

I guess, had choice E not been there, D would have been the answer, but in this case, E comes out to be the best choice.

Hope this helps you.
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I am not sure of the answer. My first impression was D but reading all the arguments i think i kind of agree that E is the correct answer. Just wanted to ask " the comments from the company is rather a firm indication of any problem " than the pedestrian. This whole idea made me think of D. Is this understanding wrong ?

The Dear One Baby Carrier is the safest and most comfortable baby carrier available today. The hard plastic exterior retains its shape despite minor impacts, protecting baby from the outside, while the thick interior “comfort pad” acts as a shock absorber inside. The interior design has been comfort-tested by thousands of infants, and the exterior handles have been designed with the arms and hands of caring parents in mind. Perhaps best of all, the Dear One Baby Carrier converts easily from an at-large carrier to a car seat, reducing the risk to baby posed by being shifted from one carrier to another.

Which of the following, if true, would most undermine the claim to safety made on behalf of the Dear One Baby Carrier?

An infant safety commission announces that most dropping accidents involving infants occur when a parent is the primary caretaker.

A survey conducted by a popular magazine reveals that a large number of parents are still not aware of the danger posed to infants by putting their carriers in the front seat.

A parents’ group endorses the Dear One Baby Carrier as the most convenient baby carrier to take on vacation.

A manufacturer adds a “danger of suffocation” label to the bedding used for the interior of the Dear One Baby Carrier.

An article written by a pediatrician states that at-large baby carriers do not safely double as car seats.

Hi ron34,

This is a nice question.

First, remember that in a weakener question, the correct answer need not destroy the conclusion completely. The purpose would be well served if it is enough to hurt the argument by raising doubts over the conclusion posited by the argument in some way.

Now, in option E, you are right in stating that the pediatrician may be patronizing a rival firm. However, this is just an assumption you are making. Even if it actually were the case, the pediatrician may very well have a strong point on the basis of genuine evidence, and his claim need not be grounded just because he is on the rival’s side.

So mate, as you see there are a host of UNWARRANTED assumptions that need to be made while forming an accurate judgment of the Baby Carrier under question just on the basis of the pediatrician’s claim. The purpose of this weakener is not to form an accurate judgment as it would either establish the manufacturer’s claim by proving the pediatrician wrong or destroy it completely by proving the latter right.

So to serve my purpose, I rather discount these UNWARRANTED assumptions. The best this option E does is that it definitely raises concerns over the safety claims made by the manufacturers, which would in future prompt regulatory (I guess traffic authorities) to dig into details, scurry over facts pertaining to safety guidelines, technical aspects relating to shock bearing capacity of these baby carriers when acting as car seats, etc…etc. to prove whether the pediatrician is right or wrong.

Going to option D. This statement is a scope shift, where the scope of argument pertains to conversion of Dear One baby-carriers into car seats as a reliably safe measure. Option D does state a safety aspect but under an entirely different context. There is no hint in the stimulus stating that the conversion of baby-carriers to car seats would impact bedding adversely.

Hence, option E stands correct.

Hi aditya8062,
First of all, I must say that I have been observing the way you analyze verbal questions and I really like it….Thanks for responding…

Anyways back to our question….

I do agree that the 1st sentence as noted by you is the conclusion…and indeed the main conclusion. However, the author mentions an example (carrier-to-car seat conversion) in the last sentence of the passage in order to assert that Dear One Baby carriers MAY BE (usage of ‘perhaps’ in the beginning) considered the best and need not actually be the best as they are relatively easy to convert and reduce the risk of harm to babies. The bold part is a claim made by the author. We are supposed to weaken this claim by providing additional evidence, according to the question stem (Which of the following, if true, would most undermine the claim to safety made on behalf (by the author) of the Dear One Baby Carrier?). Hence, the main conclusion of the argument is actually besides the point to be addressed.

Now, option D in no way provides evidence to undermine this claim of safety made by the author. Option D talks about a precautionary label used by manufacturers to warn users that there is a potential threat from bedding suffocation. There is no claim made by the author regarding whether such bedding issues actually result in endangering the security of babies.

In short, the option D fails to address the point raised by the question stem and this is what I meant by scope shift because it falls beyond the scope of what is being asked. Even though the purported argument raised by the author is what you have noted, the argument under consideration is in relevance to the question stem (“claim of safety made by author”) only, and hence the discussion about carrier-to-car seat conversion as a reliably safe measure in my earlier post

Very nice. Thanks guys.
I just hope that on D-Day I will notice these subtleties....

Whilst I already have some sharp people on this thread... Can you have a look here at one of my other posts and give your inputs?

Thanks!

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