Expert, please explain OE here.

The argument is saying dengue fever incidents have doubled in North India since last year.

Conclusion: Measure to control mosquito have failed.

We need to find out weakeners. The one left would be the right answer.

A. more cases are now reported because of increases in administrative efficiency : It is saying it was not the measure failure but admin efficiency failure. Hence, a weakener.
B. a very high proportion of the cases were in people who had recently returned from neighboring countries : It brings in my mind that may be they brought dengue from neighboring countries . Hence a weakener.
C. an effective diagnostic test was introduced about nine months ago : Ok, so it was brought only 9 months ago. So, how can we say it failed. May be it just started and it is preventing the increase from 10 times to just twice. A weakener.
D. the disease is prevalent only in some industrialized areas which have shown a dramatic increase in population due to migration : Those industrialized areas could be the reason. Hence, a weakener.
E. the incidence (number of cases per thousand) of malaria, also contracted from mosquito bites, has increased. Malaria is irrelevant here. Hence, not a weakener and a correct answer.
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I want to ask one question that is not related to this topic.

requires that V-infinive (be, go, etc) as a subjunctive
then it is required that also a subjunctive, right?

Hi,

Can you please be a bit more clear on your question? It is not clear what is your concern. Is it related to tense form or something else.

If tense form, then yes 'require' in any tense form, along with 'that', makes a subjunctive verb.
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Stem analysis :
This question is an Weaken Except question :
Conclusion :
Measures failure ---> increase in dengue cases.

A :- Provides an alternate cause of increase in cases. - weakens
B :- Another alternate cause - ppl coming from other states with dengue increased - weakens .
C :- Yet another alternate cause - Better testing procedure is introduced. - weakens.
D :- Same as B . migration has caused - Weakens
E :- It says indeed the measures to control those bugs have failed. Strengthens a bit.

Hence, answer is E.

The question stem is asking us for an option which does not weaken the conclusion...:

Conclusion : Mosquito control measures have failed and have lead to the increase in dengue cases.

Any option that supports the conclusion will be our answer.

Only option E strengthens the conclusion by giving reasons to prove that mosquito control measures have indeed failed and the incidence of malaria due to mosquito bites has actually increased.

Other options give reasons to prove that mosquito control measures have worked and the rise in incidence is attributable to other causes viz. immigration.


Hence, answer is E.


HIT THE KUDOS BUTTON IF YOU FOUND IT HELPFUL...P.S ...IT DOESNT COST ANYTHING

The correct answer here is E. This is a "weaken the argument" question, but it is also an "Except" question. What this means is that rather than looking for one option that weakens the conclusion, we're looking to eliminate 4 options that all weaken the conclusion.

A - This certainly weakens the argument. It provides an alternative explanation for the increased number of reported cases which suggests that the methods have not failed, we just have better stats now. OUT

B - This also weakens the argument. If most or even many of the cases are from people who were not from the region being tested, then it invalidates the conclusion that measures taken in the region didn't work. OUT

C - If a new test was introduced within the last year, it would account for differences in the number of reported cases, and therefore provide an alternative explanation as to why the numbers didn't go down. OUT

D - This is wrong for the same reason that B is wrong. The fact that it is prevalent only in some areas does nothing to weaken the conclusion, but the point about migration is the same as in B. If the people with the disease are not from the region in which the measures were taken, we cannot say that the measures taken failed. OUT

E - Must be right by elimination. If we know that malaria has gone up as well, it certainly cannot be the case that the measures didn't fail, since it suggests that there are more of the mosquitoes now. This actually even strengthens the argumentCORRECT

Although it didn't apply to this question, it is important to remember that a "Weaken [except] the argument" question doesn't mean that you have to strengthen the argument. It simply means that you have to "NOT weaken". For this reason, you're best off trying to eliminate the other four options that actually do weaken it.

- Matoo
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