"The financial losses last quarter were not caused by the recession. I

Question

"The financial losses last quarter were not caused by the recession. Instead, stockholders and customers were reacting to the news, released last week, that our CEO will soon be brought to trial on charges of fraud."

Which of the following, if true, would most weaken the claim?
A. Many businesses experienced significant losses last quarter due to the recession.
B.The last financial quarter ended more than two weeks ago. 
C. Other businesses have experienced similar legal trouble without it affecting their finances. 
D. Stockholders would likely have been suspicious of the CEO long before the CEO was actually charged with fraud.
 E. Many customers have said that the CEO's legal troubles have affected their perception of the company.

yashikaaggarwal · Answer

The passage states that the financial loss was incurred due to the CEO'S fraud discovered by the customer/stakeholders last week. 
The main highlight is last week here. 
What if the company faced loss before the exposure of CEO'S fraud in public? Then we can't claim that the CEO is the reason for loss. 
A) even if other businesses face loss, what is the significance of other businesses profit and loss with this particular company? There are chances that the companies suffered loss were of different field. (Irrelevant)

B) financial quarter end before the public came to know about CEO'S fraud. This is weakening the whole base of passage (Correct)

C) This is strengthening the passage as if other businesses didn't faced any issue then this company might faced issue because of CEO. (incorrect)

D) again strengthening the argument, that the reason for loss is indeed CEO (Incorrect)

E) Same as with C, and D. Strengthening the passage by blaming the CEO for company loss. (Incorrect)

Answer must be B

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globaldesi · Answer

OE:
The argument claims that last quarter's financial losses were not caused by the recession, but rather were the result of the company's CEO being brought to trial on charges of fraud. A statement weakening that assertion will either demonstrate that the losses were caused by the recession or were not caused by the CEO's legal issues. Choice (B) accomplishes this most effectively. If the last financial quarter ended more than two weeks ago, then news that was announced just last week could not have affected the finances for that quarter. Thus, it cannot be the case that the CEO's fraud charges caused the company's financial losses. 
Choices (A) and (C) are irrelevant. You are concerned with this company's financial situation, not other companies'. 
Choice (D) is too speculative. If anything, it strengthens the argument by showing that stockholders' suspicions of the CEO could have caused the losses last quarter. 
Choice (E) strengthens the argument in a similar way and is also not the correct answer for this question. 
Choice (B) is the correct answer.

napolean92728 · Answer

The correct answer is:  B. The last financial quarter ended more than two weeks ago. 
Reasoning:
The original claim is:
 
To  weaken  this claim, we want to show that the CEO news  could not have caused  last quarter's losses — perhaps because the news came  after  the quarter ended.

Let’s analyze each option:

A. Many businesses experienced significant losses last quarter due to the recession. 
 
 ❌  Incorrect : This supports the idea that  the recession  could be a factor but doesn't  directly contradict the timing  of the CEO news. It’s plausible both the recession and CEO news played roles, so it doesn’t directly weaken the specific cause stated.  
 B. The last financial quarter ended more than two weeks ago. 
 
 ✅  Correct : If the  news of the CEO’s charges was released last week , but the  quarter ended over two weeks ago , then the losses  could not have been a reaction to that news . This clearly weakens the causal claim that the news caused  last quarter’s  losses.  
 C. Other businesses have experienced similar legal trouble without it affecting their finances. 
 
 ❌  Incorrect : This provides a general point about other companies, but  doesn’t directly apply  to this company or prove that the CEO’s news didn’t cause these losses. It weakens the plausibility, but not the  specific claim about timing and causation .

D. Stockholders would likely have been suspicious of the CEO long before the CEO was actually charged with fraud. 
 
 ❌  Incorrect : This  shifts the cause of the reaction to an earlier time , but still supports the idea that  CEO-related concerns caused losses , which doesn’t weaken the claim. In fact, it may still support it.

E. Many customers have said that the CEO's legal troubles have affected their perception of the company. 
 
 ❌  Incorrect : This  supports  the original claim that customer reaction to the CEO’s news hurt the company, so it  strengthens , not weakens, the argument.

"The financial losses last quarter were not caused by the recession. I

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"The financial losses last quarter were not caused by the recession. I

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