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655-705 (Hard)|   Weaken|      
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vani711
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Sugar quotas imposed by the federal government raise the price of suga 16 Sep 2013, 21:13
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E
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55% (hard)

Question Stats:

57% (01:43) correct 43% (01:48) wrong based on 567 sessions

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Sugar quotas imposed by the federal government raise the price of sugar and all sugar-based products, whether the sugar is produced domestically or abroad. Therefore, if the president and the Senate approve the proposed treaty to lift sugar quotas, the trend of ever-increasing sugar prices will be halted.

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


A. Sugar prices have climbed with each new round of quotas.

B. Sugar prices have sometimes dropped since the first set of quotas was imposed.

C. Sugar quotas vary from year to year according to a prearranged formula.

D. Sugar prices rose less rapidly in the 1980s than they did in the 1970s.

E. Even before the implementation of sugar quotas, the price of sugar occasionally rose.
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E
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akijuneja
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Sugar quotas imposed by the federal government raise the price of suga 19 Sep 2013, 10:31
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vani711
Sugar quotas imposed by the federal government raise the price of sugar and all sugar-based products, whether the sugar is produced domestically or abroad. Therefore, if the president and the Senate approve the proposed treaty to lift sugar quotas, the trend of ever-increasing sugar prices will be halted.

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


Sugar prices have climbed with each new round of quotas.


Sugar prices have sometimes dropped since the first set of quotas was imposed.


Sugar quotas vary from year to year according to a prearranged formula.


Sugar prices rose less rapidly in the 1980s than they did in the 1970s.


Even before the implementation of sugar quotas, the price of sugar occasionally rose.
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Can you explain how E is correct here?
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BeckyRobinsonTPR
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Sugar quotas imposed by the federal government raise the price of suga 19 Sep 2013, 10:48
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This question requires an answer choice that shows that if they lift the quotas the trend of increasing price will stop.

The correct answer will have new information that shows this conclusion is not necessarily true.
vani711
Sugar quotas imposed by the federal government raise the price of sugar and all sugar-based products, whether the sugar is produced domestically or abroad. Therefore, if the president and the Senate approve the proposed treaty to lift sugar quotas, the trend of ever-increasing sugar prices will be halted.

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


Sugar prices have climbed with each new round of quotas.this answer does not show that sugar prices won't drop if they rise with quotas


Sugar prices have sometimes dropped since the first set of quotas was imposed.This answer does not weaken the conclusion because if prices have sometimes dropped after the quotas then we don't know what happens when you take the quotas away as there is not really a correlation


Sugar quotas vary from year to year according to a prearranged formula.This is a typical answer that does not provide much information - How sugar quotas are calculated and the fact that they vary does not tell us anything about what eliminating them will do.


Sugar prices rose less rapidly in the 1980s than they did in the 1970s.without more information about the 70s and 80s this answer choice provides no real information


Even before the implementation of sugar quotas, the price of sugar occasionally rose.this shows that prices can sometimes rise even without quotas - therefore eliminating the quotas does not guarantee the halting of price increases.
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Sugar quotas imposed by the federal government raise the price of suga 19 Sep 2013, 10:53
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akijuneja
vani711
Sugar quotas imposed by the federal government raise the price of sugar and all sugar-based products, whether the sugar is produced domestically or abroad. Therefore, if the president and the Senate approve the proposed treaty to lift sugar quotas, the trend of ever-increasing sugar prices will be halted.

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


Sugar prices have climbed with each new round of quotas.


Sugar prices have sometimes dropped since the first set of quotas was imposed.


Sugar quotas vary from year to year according to a prearranged formula.


Sugar prices rose less rapidly in the 1980s than they did in the 1970s.


Even before the implementation of sugar quotas, the price of sugar occasionally rose.


Can you explain how E is correct here?
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Hey Aki,

The question i asking us to weaken the conclusion of the question stem, I will rephrase it for you:

Concl.: The trend of rising prices (of sugar) will get halted once the quotas are lifted by the government. (Plus, we also know that it is given in the premise - "because of government quotas..prices are scaling up)

So, in order to weaken this conclusion, we need to find a choice that will give us an alternate reasoning for the rising sugar prices.

Now, choice E says that the prices had risen earlier as well, in the absence of any imposed quotas. So that's our answer - since we have weakened the conclusion that prices were rising only because of government imposed quotas, and shall stop scaling up when the quotas are lifted.

Hope that helps. 8-)
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Sugar quotas imposed by the federal government raise the price of suga 06 Dec 2015, 12:19
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Agree that E is the best. I was confused between B and E. Nevertheless, we cannot argue the fact that quotas raise the prices. B tries to attack the premise, which is not really allowed in CR.
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Sugar quotas imposed by the federal government raise the price of suga 22 Jan 2018, 06:16
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mvictor
Agree that E is the best. I was confused between B and E. Nevertheless, we cannot argue the fact that quotas raise the prices. B tries to attack the premise, which is not really allowed in CR.
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Agree. Same happened with me. I chose B ignoring the fact that the choice is clearly negating what was mentioned as a premise of the argument. What you posted makes sense. :thumbup:
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Sugar quotas imposed by the federal government raise the price of suga 30 Jan 2018, 21:17
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vani711
Sugar quotas imposed by the federal government raise the price of sugar and all sugar-based products, whether the sugar is produced domestically or abroad. Therefore, if the president and the Senate approve the proposed treaty to lift sugar quotas, the trend of ever-increasing sugar prices will be halted.

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


Sugar prices have climbed with each new round of quotas.


Sugar prices have sometimes dropped since the first set of quotas was imposed.


Sugar quotas vary from year to year according to a prearranged formula.


Sugar prices rose less rapidly in the 1980s than they did in the 1970s.


Even before the implementation of sugar quotas, the price of sugar occasionally rose.
Show more


How to attack a causal conclusion:
1. Find an alternate cause
2. Show that even when the cause occurs, the effect does not occur
3. Show that although the effect occurs, the cause did not occur
4. Show that the stated relationship is reversed
5. Show that a statistical problem exists with the data used to make the causal statement
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Sugar quotas imposed by the federal government raise the price of suga 23 Nov 2025, 19:56
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