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655-705 (Hard)|   Weaken|      
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AndrewN
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The excessive number of safety regulations that the federal government 27 Nov 2020, 15:28
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shanks2020
eybrj2
The excessive number of safety regulations that the federal government has placed on industry poses more serious hardships for big businesses than for small ones. Since large companies do everything on a more massive scale, they must alter more complex operations and spend much more money to meet governmental requirements.

Which of the following, if true, would most weaken the argument above?


A. small companies are less likely than large companies to have the capital reserves for improvement.

B. the operation of small companies frequently rely on the same technologies as the operations of large companies.

C. safety regulation codes are uniform established without reference to size of company

D. large companies typically have more of their profits invested in other businesses than do small companies.

E. large companies are in general more likely than small companies to diversify their markets and products



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What's wrong with c?
I thought that since safety regulation codes are uinform, the size of companies doesn't matter, which weaken the argument above. (By the way, what are safety codes? :? )

Hi GMATNinja AndrewN @e-gmat

I realised that i undertook the wrong conclusion to weaken. I took "large companies must alter more complex operations and spend more money...." as the main conclusion. However, per the answers, it seems the 1st sentence is the main conclusion. The first however appears as a general information or a given premise.
How to avoid such mistakes?
Show more
To add to the earlier dialogue, I often teach my students to look for emotional or judgmental language in both CR and RC passages. Such language offers insights into the authorial presence. The first line here is too slanted to be taken simply as background information:

The excessive number of safety regulations that the federal government has placed on industry poses more serious hardships for big businesses than for small ones.

Who thinks the number of regulations is excessive? Who thinks big businesses suffer a heavier burden as a result? We have two indications in the same sentence that someone is stating an opinion or making a claim, rather than the passage laying out, on neutral ground, information from which we can later draw to assess an argument that may appear.

I always like to put myself to the test and answer questions on my own before I offer my thoughts. This one was pretty easy to narrow down to (A) and (B). I went with (A) in the end because I felt it was the harder to argue against, falling more in line with the weaken task of the question stem.

Thank you, shanks2020, for drawing my attention to the question. It was not one I had seen before. I hope my response helps in your studies.

- Andrew
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The excessive number of safety regulations that the federal government 27 Nov 2020, 22:47
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shanks2020
eybrj2
The excessive number of safety regulations that the federal government has placed on industry poses more serious hardships for big businesses than for small ones. Since large companies do everything on a more massive scale, they must alter more complex operations and spend much more money to meet governmental requirements.

Which of the following, if true, would most weaken the argument above?


A. small companies are less likely than large companies to have the capital reserves for improvement.

B. the operation of small companies frequently rely on the same technologies as the operations of large companies.

C. safety regulation codes are uniform established without reference to size of company

D. large companies typically have more of their profits invested in other businesses than do small companies.

E. large companies are in general more likely than small companies to diversify their markets and products



Show Spoiler
What's wrong with c?
I thought that since safety regulation codes are uinform, the size of companies doesn't matter, which weaken the argument above. (By the way, what are safety codes? :? )

Hi GMATNinja AndrewN @e-gmat

I realised that i undertook the wrong conclusion to weaken. I took "large companies must alter more complex operations and spend more money...." as the main conclusion. However, per the answers, it seems the 1st sentence is the main conclusion. The first however appears as a general information or a given premise.
How to avoid such mistakes?
To add to the earlier dialogue, I often teach my students to look for emotional or judgmental language in both CR and RC passages. Such language offers insights into the authorial presence. The first line here is too slanted to be taken simply as background information:

The excessive number of safety regulations that the federal government has placed on industry poses more serious hardships for big businesses than for small ones.

Who thinks the number of regulations is excessive? Who thinks big businesses suffer a heavier burden as a result? We have two indications in the same sentence that someone is stating an opinion or making a claim, rather than the passage laying out, on neutral ground, information from which we can later draw to assess an argument that may appear.

I always like to put myself to the test and answer questions on my own before I offer my thoughts. This one was pretty easy to narrow down to (A) and (B). I went with (A) in the end because I felt it was the harder to argue against, falling more in line with the weaken task of the question stem.

Thank you, shanks2020, for drawing my attention to the question. It was not one I had seen before. I hope my response helps in your studies.

- Andrew
Show more

Thanks AndrewN for this great reply. I usually love your detailed explanations. Yes, this question was unique to me, in that I mistook the conclusion, which is usually not that tricky part of GMAT CR.
Would be great if you can provide me links of some official questions where the conclusion is "masked"like this one.
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The excessive number of safety regulations that the federal government 28 Nov 2020, 14:49
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shanks2020
Thanks AndrewN for this great reply. I usually love your detailed explanations. Yes, this question was unique to me, in that I mistook the conclusion, which is usually not that tricky part of GMAT CR.
Would be great if you can provide me links of some official questions where the conclusion is "masked"like this one.
Show more
Well, shanks2020, I am glad to help out. Although this has been a busy week for me and I have a lot of work to do yet, I wanted to circle back and let you know that in general, the best place to find nit-picky questions about intermediate conclusions, main conclusions, claims, premises and so forth is boldface questions. If you really want to run through the gauntlet, take a crack at those tagged as LSAT questions. You will feel like you have stepped into a courtroom in no time.

Happy searching.

- Andrew
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The excessive number of safety regulations that the federal government 09 Jul 2023, 23:49
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Honestly, I find option E to be a very good answer. Since large companies diversify, regulation on industry will not have as big an impact on large firms as on small firms, since production is diversified. So in fact smaller firms will fare worse when they face industry regulation because they are solely focusing on a single industry. If this doesn't weaken the argument I don't know what does. In addition, option A says small firms have a hard time reserving capital. Sure, large firms can reserve more, but they also need to spend more capital, so that doesn't necessarily make the situation any better.
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AndrewN GMATNinja KarishmaB

This was my exact line of reasoning. How is option A superior to E? The passage specifically mentions federal government's safety regulations and industry, and option E attacks both in one fell swoop for the reasons stated by frankqxq.
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The excessive number of safety regulations that the federal government 10 Jul 2023, 03:45
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achloes
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Honestly, I find option E to be a very good answer. Since large companies diversify, regulation on industry will not have as big an impact on large firms as on small firms, since production is diversified. So in fact smaller firms will fare worse when they face industry regulation because they are solely focusing on a single industry. If this doesn't weaken the argument I don't know what does. In addition, option A says small firms have a hard time reserving capital. Sure, large firms can reserve more, but they also need to spend more capital, so that doesn't necessarily make the situation any better.

AndrewN GMATNinja KarishmaB

This was my exact line of reasoning. How is option A superior to E? The passage specifically mentions federal government's safety regulations and industry, and option E attacks both in one fell swoop for the reasons stated by frankqxq.
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Hello, achloes. To me, answer choice (E) looks more like a strengthener, supporting the argument that large companies do everything on a more massive scale [than small companies] and must alter more complex operations and spend much more money to meet governmental requirements. It takes a major assumption to reason that diversification means less regulation. The regulations could just as easily apply to each arm of the diversified company. We are looking for a hurdle for small companies to meet governmental requirements. Answer choice (A) does just that: if small companies have less capital to devote to meeting governmental safety requirements, then they face an obstacle that larger companies may not face to meet those requirements. This is straight-arrow GMAT logic at its best. Sure, there are real-world concerns that complicate the picture, but (A) directly touches on the argument, whereas (E) rests on the assumption that diversifying allows larger companies to avoid the same safety regulations that would be applied to what, exactly, its parent company exclusively? There is no reason to believe that each subsidiary would not also be subject to the same requirements.

Answer choice (E) fits into what I call a one-step-removed option. If it takes an extra step to link an answer choice to the argument—the exact argument presented in the passage—then that answer choice is almost assuredly incorrect.

Thank you for asking for my input on the question, and good luck with your studies.

- Andrew
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The excessive number of safety regulations that the federal government 20 Feb 2026, 11:58
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