Certain gemstones are formed by magma, a material found deep

Question

Certain gemstones are formed by magma, a material found deep inside the Earth, that has pushed toward the surface and solidified; others are created when superheated water and gases cool. When chemical action, heat, or pressure changes the existing structure of rocks, they may recrystallize to form gemstones such as emeralds. A large chemical company plans to create a new source of profits by applying certain of the chemicals it manufactures to specifically chosen rock samples, which would be a much less expensive way to produce emeralds than mining them.

which one of the following, if true, poses the most serious problem for the success of the company’s
plan?

A. Man-made emeralds will not be considered as valuable as naturally produced emeralds.
B. Natural emeralds are produced by heat and pressure much more frequently than by chemical action.
C. The types of material from which emeralds are formed are not found on the Earth’s surface.
D. Laboratory conditions are difficult to replicate in a large-scale factory.
E. The gases that will mix with superheated water are so toxic that workers could suffer from a number of serious medical conditions if the handling of such gases is not strictly controlled.

IanStewart · Accepted Answer

In such questions, the statements in the stem are premises. They need to be taken as *facts* -- they cannot be false. When the stem says the company's plan "would be a much less expensive way to produce emeralds than mining them", that's a simple fact. It cannot be wrong. So any answer choice which says that the plan might be expensive cannot be the right answer, since even if that's true, we still *know* the plan is cheaper than mining emeralds. That makes answers like C or D incorrect.

Since we know absolutely that it is cheaper to chemically produce emeralds than it is to mine them, we know expenses will go down. The main reason this plan might not increase profits is if revenues might go down even further than expenses. That makes A the only good answer here.

Since we know absolutely that it is cheaper to chemically produce emeralds than it is to mine them, we know expenses will go down. The main reason this plan might not increase profits is if revenues might go down even further than expenses. That makes A the only good answer here.

sriniz · Answer

A. Man-made emeralds will not be considered as valuable as naturally produced emeralds.  No evidence to support this 
B. Natural emeralds are produced by heat and pressure much more frequently than by chemical action.  Seems to be correct, but who knows - they may be produced more frequently, but what if the production is of much less quantity? In this case chemical action therefore is much more profitable than mining for small quantities 
C. The types of material from which emeralds are formed are not found on the Earth’s surface.  Correct - if the material used to produce is not available on earth surface, the company got to dig the earth for the material which is same is same as mining for natually produced emeralds. And additionall costs to turn the material into emerlad in artificial process 
D. Laboratory conditions are difficult to replicate in a large-scale factory.  Level of difficulty in setup doesnt impact the expected profits. 
E. The gases that will mix with superheated water are so toxic that workers could suffer from a number of serious medical conditions if the handling of such gases is not strictly controlled.  OOS

ZuluMong · Answer

Not seeing how A is the answer here...man-made emeralds may not be considered as valuable but can still be a new source of profit to the company, even if marginal. I went with C but did not like that answer as well.

Chembeti · Answer

First let us understand what we need to weaken:

A large chemical company plans to  create a new source of profits  by applying  certain of the chemicals  it manufactures to specifically chosen rock samples, which would be a much less expensive way to produce emeralds than mining them.

So, the bottom line is company thinks that there is a market for artificial emeralds. Let us see.

A. Man-made emeralds will not be considered as valuable as naturally produced emeralds. -->  this clearly says there is no market .

B. Natural emeralds are produced by heat and pressure much more frequently than by chemical action. -->  this is just another piece of info in addition to what is stated in the passage and company is not concerned with it.

C. The types of material from which emeralds are formed are not found on the Earth’s surface.-->  this is just another piece of info in addition to what is stated in the passage and company is not concerned with it.

D. Laboratory conditions are difficult to replicate in a large-scale factory. -->  this says 'difficult' but not impossible. So, there are chances for the company to manufacture.

E. The gases that will mix with superheated water are so toxic that workers could suffer from a number of serious medical conditions if the handling of such gases is not strictly controlled. -->  irrelevant because company is not planning to manufacture emeralds this way. This could be a strong contender if it talked about chemical process rather than super heated water because those medical conditions would eat up company's profits.

So, except A, everything else is wrong.

mysterio · Answer

still don't feel fully convinced why C cannot be the correct answer.. Could someone explain the reasoning involved here in detail

SyedSan · Answer

me too...Between C and A, I chose former for if we consider A to be true; the man made emerald can still be valuable and can be made profit of - the argument doesn't say that man made emerald is cheap. Final answer will never include an additional assumption that man made ermerald is cheap. On the other hand C makes it clear that the material to make emerald is not available.

OldFritz · Answer

Profits= Revenues - Cost

Company wants to increase profits by reducing costs and perhaps maintaining (or even increasing) revenues. However, if the new type of gemstones are inferior, they are likely to be shunned or at best draw command less revenues.

Thus we see that A is the best among the bunch in terms of factors that would cause profits not to be increased.

Cheers,
Der alte Fritz.

Desperate123 · Answer

I was between A and D and chose A. why is D wrong? If lab conditions are not suiting industry conditions then there will be decline in profits. Can anybody please explain my error in reasoning ????

MPRS22 · Answer

Don't know what the experts think but A seems kind of weak. Even if they are not as valuable the conclusion doesn't fall; ie they can still create a source of profits if costs are lower. It is entirely possible they are only a few dollars less valuable or thousands of dollars less valuable. This is the same problem we find in C, they could be 10m below the surface, or 10,000. How can we safely eliminate C and not A?

Thanks

AndrewN VeritasKarishma

Thanks

AndrewN   VeritasKarishma

AndrewN · Answer

Hello,  MPRS22 . I agree that (A) is not the most satisfying answer in general. We are forced to conflate  not... as valuable as  in the answer choice with a  substandard   new source of profits  from the passage. Sure, a manufactured emerald that sold for $9,999 instead of a natural one that might fetch $10,000 would undermine such reasoning, but we do not have any numbers to work with from the passage. Neither can we qualify  not found on the Earth's surface  in (C). How deep would the company have to dig for the process to be deemed  mining ?  IanStewart  brings up an interesting consideration in his post, one that I had not thought to pursue.

In short, I am not exactly satisfied with any answer, but you are tasked with selecting what you think is the most reasonable answer of the five presented. (As an aside, I would not lose sleep over a Princeton Review question. Moderator   nightblade354   seems to be of a similar mind. Check out his response to another Hard Princeton Review CR question,  here .)

Thank you for thinking to ask me about this one. I wish I had a more definitive answer for you.

- Andrew

vv65 · Answer

Point 1: C is a better answer than A  
- "Not considered as valuable" does NOT mean "will not make a profit"
- Companies make good profits by selling cheap artificial jewelry that is definitely not considered as valuable as 'real' jewelry made with real gemstones.

Point 2: Princeton Review says that the answer is C  
(As anyone who has taught or studied GMAT at Princeton Review knows)

"would be a much less expensive way to produce emeralds than mining them" is not exactly a FACT - it is a prediction, which may or may not be accurate
The success of the plan depends on the company's process being less expensive
What if the company's process is not less expensive? Then the plan may fail

AndrewN · Answer

I hope I did not offend your sensibilities, vv65. If Princeton Review says the answer is (C), then it is (C). Do you have proof of this? (If so, we need to get a moderator to change the OA.)

.... since, as you know I have written before, I do not have all the answers.

I guess if the answer does prove to be (C), it will show nothing more than that nobody else seems to have all the answers either.

I still strongly advocate studying official questions for Verbal. Sometimes Princeton Review questions so closely resemble those from GMAC™ that I can point to a specific question in the OG as the (probable) source; other times, the question just seems off. I know questions are hard to write, and that is why I like to leave the job up to GMAC™.

Thanks for your input.

- Andrew

I still strongly advocate studying official questions for Verbal. Sometimes Princeton Review questions so closely resemble those from GMAC™ that I can point to a specific question in the OG as the (probable) source; other times, the question just seems off. I know questions are hard to write, and that is why I like to leave the job up to GMAC™.

Thanks for your input.

- Andrew

vv65 · Answer

Why would my sensibilities be offended!

This is a question from the Princeton Review In-Class Manual. 
The manual is used for in-class teaching. Each question has a teaching point. Answers to the questions are not printed in the book.
So I don't know how to provide proof that C is the official answer.

You're right that none of us have all the answers. That's especially true for non-official questions. They are sometimes badly written, and sometimes it's possible to disagree with the OA. 
So it really is best to study from official questions.

Posted from my mobile device

AndrewN · Answer

Given your signature and your initial response, I entertained the notion that you  were  a Princeton Review instructor, and I would not wish to bash a company you might work for. I have seen some awful Kaplan questions, for instance, but at the same time found some of the comments made by Kaplan instructors in the forum to be quite on point. In any case, if no offense was taken, then so much the better.

Until we meet again, and keep up the fine work.

- Andrew

KarishmaB · Answer

Though (A) was pretty much what I had in mind while reading the argument (that lab produced emeralds will not be rare and hence will not be considered "precious"), the way (A) is written, I would think it is a trap option. 
That said, none of the other options have any merit either.

rajkoushik17 · Answer

Can anyone provide Official answer along with the explanation.

A can't be the answer because it's not as valuable as natural ones but that doesn't mean it can't generate profit, since the it's less expensive way the value need not to be as same as natural one to get profit. It can be less and still be profitable. Someone please explain

GurpreetMahli · Answer

I think  IanStewart  nailed it and there is a definitive answer here.

"A large chemical company plans to create a new source of profits by applying certain of the chemicals it manufactures to specifically chosen rock samples, which would be a much less expensive way to produce emeralds than mining them."

"... rock samples  (plan)   , (comma)  which would ...  (premise) " The plan is followed by a premise so regardless that you would have to mine rock samples deep in the earth it would cheaper then mining emerald even if emeralds was on the surface.

Since this a weaken question we only have to cause doubt not invalidate the conclusion of a new source of profit. Which  A  does so by saying there may not be enough demand for it such that it may not be a new source of profit.Which doesn't mean no demand or no revenue just that not enough for it to be greater than cost.

Spamittttttttt · Answer

"would be a much less expensive way to produce emeralds than mining them."

If this line is mentioned in the paragraph then I am not sure how A is not eliminated. 
For me, C seems to be a better answer- chemical needed for producing emerald is not there on earth's surface therefore there is need for mining.

egmat · Answer

Hi Spamittttttttt,

You've actually spotted the key line; you've just pointed it at the wrong choice. That "much less expensive way to produce emeralds than mining them" line is exactly why  C fails , not why A should be eliminated.

Here's the thing IanStewart raised earlier in the thread: everything in the stimulus is a  premise - a stated fact you must accept as true.  So "cheaper than mining" is locked in. It cannot be wrong.

Now look at your reasoning for  C : "the material isn't on the surface,  therefore  they'll have to mine, so it costs more." That conclusion directly fights the fact the passage just gave you. Even if the company has to dig for rock samples, the passage still  guarantees  the whole process is cheaper than mining emeralds. You can't weaken a plan by contradicting a premise - so C can't be the answer.

The move that unlocks the question:  think of it as Profit = Revenue - Cost.

- The passage nails down the  cost  side (cheaper than mining - a fact).
- So the only way the plan can fail is on the  revenue  side.

That's precisely what  A  does. If man-made emeralds "will not be considered as valuable," they sell for less - revenue drops. Producing them cheaply doesn't help if buyers won't pay for them. Notice A never touches cost at all, which is why the "cheaper" line does nothing to eliminate it - A is attacking a completely different part of the profit equation.

Quick gut-check to lock the habit  - turn one knob and see what survives:

- If a choice said "the chemical process turns out to be expensive" - dead on arrival, it fights a stated fact (that's C and D).
- If a choice said "few buyers want man-made emeralds" - alive, because revenue is still open ground (that's A).

Attack revenue, not the premise.

Answer: A

Certain gemstones are formed by magma, a material found deep

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Certain gemstones are formed by magma, a material found deep

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