In Acadia National Park, there is a large network of gravel

Question

In Acadia National Park, there is a large network of gravel carriage roads that are closed to vehicular traffic but open to a variety of other uses. In an attempt to substantially limit the damage that occurs to the carriage roads from overuse during the course of a year, park officials are imposing strict rules during the spring season. From March 15th to May 1st, when the roads are especially soft and more easily damaged, horses and bikes will be prohibited from all carriage roads, and walkers and runners will only be allowed on certain sections.

In assessing whether the park officials' plan to limit the damage to the carriage roads will be successful, it would be most useful to know which of the following?

In assessing whether the park officials' plan to limit the damage to the carriage roads will be successful, it would be most useful to know which of the following?

A. Whether bikes and horses cause more damage to the carriage roads than walkers and runners do.
B. Whether snowmobilers are allowed to use the carriage roads during the winter months.
C. Whether a considerable percentage of carriage road usage occurs from March 15th to May 1st.
D. Whether some sections of the carriage roads are more susceptible to damage from overuse than others.
E. Whether a substantial percentage of visitors to the park ride their bikes on the carriage roads during their visit.

akhil911 · Accepted Answer

VERITAS PREP OFFICIAL SOLUTION:

This argument assumes that many people are actually using the carriage roads from March 15th to May 1st. What if virtually no one visited the park that time of year? Then this plan would do very little to prevent damage from overuse. Therefore the answer is (C) – if a large percentage of use occurs during this time period then it’s a good plan, and if a small percentage of use occurs during this time period then it’s a bad plan. The relative damage caused by bikes and horses versus runners and runners and walkers is not important (both are being limited and you don’t know the real difference in the limitation). Whether snowmobiles are allowed in winter does not relate to the efficacy of this specific plan – maybe only a few snowmobiles use the roads. (D) is pretty much given already in the stimulus and (E) is also not relevant as you don’t need to know how popular biking is in relation to the total population.  Answer is (C).

anceer · Answer

Why A is wrong...can any one explain.. :oops:

Rajan6406 · Answer

We are asked to choose the option which is "most helpful" in evaluating the given argument. In this question, A is also helpful in evaluating the given argument but C is the MOST helpful because if the road is most used outside the specified period, then the plan falls apart. I hope it helps

subhamgarg91 · Answer

Why E is wrong?
If substantial percentage of visitors ride bikes then prohibiting them will be useful otherwise not.

Please help !!

b9n920 · Answer

I think, E doesn't address question: why the imposition only for spring season, even if 100% of visitors use their bikes? 
OTOH,  C  hits the bulls eye.

subhamgarg91 · Answer

Because in spring season,  "the roads are especially soft and more easily damaged" . So even if small percentage of carriage road usage occurs during March 15th to May 1st then also road will get damaged. So option C does not evaluate the conclusion.

Whereas in option E, if 100% of visitors use their bike and we prohibit them at that time of the year when roads are more susceptible then roads will not get damaged.

IMO, option C fits best if question stem omits soft and more easily damaged part from the argument.

b9n920 · Answer

Hi  subhamgarg91

What if 100% of visitors use their bike, but  nobody  uses the carriage roads in the spring season? Does the plan still be useful in protecting the road? NO, even if the roads are soft. When there is NO use at all why worry about softness?

OTOH, if  90% of the usage  of the carriage roads happens in the spring season, the plan justifies.. who cares what % of people use bikes (BTW 'horse' is not mentioned in the answer choice E, an indication of trap)

What do u think?

subhamgarg91 · Answer

I think you deserve some kudos. :-D

Thanks for explaining it so well.

umg · Answer

For Evaluation Questions, I think, the best Strategy is the opposite of the one we use in DS. The correct Answer should give us 2 results - Plan Passes and Fails - both at the same time. Look at the solution to understand better.

A. Whether bikes and horses cause more damage to the carriage roads than walkers and runners do. 
Yes, bikes and horses cause more damage; therefore, restricting them will limit the damage to the road - Plan Works.
No, bikes and horses do not cause more damage; however, restricting them Will limit the damage to the road. Not as much as restricting walkers and runners would but still, it would help - Plan Works.

Plan works both the times, meaning that this is not a good question to evaluate the plan.

B. Whether snowmobilers are allowed to use the carriage roads during the winter months. 
Out of Scope. We don't know whether snowmobiles damage the road or not.

C. Whether a considerable percentage of carriage road usage occurs from March 15th to May 1st. 
Yes, considerable percentage of carriage road usage occurs during this time period. Restricting bikes and horses will help - Plan Works.
No, carriage road is not used during this time period. Restricting bikes and horses will not help because people do not use that road in the first place - Plan Fails.

Plan works and fails with 2 different answers to the same question. This is the right option.

D. Whether some sections of the carriage roads are more susceptible to damage from overuse than others. 
Out of Scope. More susceptible or Less susceptible, restricting the usage will help.
 
E. Whether a substantial percentage of visitors to the park ride their bikes on the carriage roads during their visit. 
This is a trick option. Plan is to restrict Bikes and Horses while more data is requested only about the usage of Bikes.

louisbharnabas · Answer

Dear Umg,

In my opinion, option C is also not very convincing: the highlighted portion above has an error; it should be "carriage road is  not considerably used  during this time period", meaning the carriage roads will be used, but lesser  (or "will not be used at all", but we cant assume this) .

Combining the above information with "From March 15th to May 1st, when the roads are especially soft and more easily damaged" from the passage, we can see that the park officials' plan will limit the damage  (or not, but we cant be certain of this) .

Regards,
Louis

louisbharnabas · Answer

But option C is definitely the best among the options provided.

Regards,
Louis

umg · Answer

Haha. I see what you just did here and hope that you see it too. If not, here is the thing..

To find the flaws in argument, it is our own sweet choice about the degree to which we test it. For instance, when I say that - Some Students out of 100 are girls - It is our choice whether we want to assume 1 of them is girl or all 100 of them are girls. This choice is dictated by the kind of argument.

So, in the example above, when you changed the words of my  No  statement, adding  considerably , you changed the degree of "negativity" in the statement and hence the confusion popped up.

The reasons for me picking the extreme negative statement are:

1. "Considerably" is not a quantified word. 3 water glasses may hold a considerable amount of water for a Thirsty Human but for a Thirsty Camel, is would be a very small amount.
2. Argument does not state whether the roads are used at all during that period. So, you are assuming that they are used when you add the word "considerable".

I hope it makes sense.

louisbharnabas · Answer

Dear Umg,

Thank you for the response.

The confusion popping up by changing the degree of negativity, without disregarding what is stated in the option, is the reason I say it is not very convincing (i mean "not ideal"), but it is definitely the best among the options provided.

Regards,
Louis

abhishekdadarwal2009 · Answer

In Acadia National Park, there is a large network of gravel carriage roads that are closed to vehicular traffic but open to a variety of other uses. In an attempt to substantially limit the damage that occurs to the carriage roads from overuse during the course of a year, park officials are imposing strict rules during the spring season. From March 15th to May 1st, when the roads are especially soft and more easily damaged, horses and bikes will be prohibited from all carriage roads, and walkers and runners will only be allowed on certain sections.

In assessing whether the park officials' plan to limit the damage to the carriage roads will be successful, it would be most useful to know which of the following?

In assessing whether the park officials'  plan to limit the damage  to the carriage roads  will be successful , it would be most  useful to know  which of the following?
 
A. Whether bikes and horses cause more damage to the carriage roads than walkers and runners do. 
The comparison for damage between bike and horses vs walkers is irrelevant, because both parties do the damage and relative damage is not the theme of the argument.

B. Whether snowmobilers are allowed to use the carriage roads during the winter months. 
Snowmobilers are not even in the argument..out of scope.

C. Whether a considerable percentage of carriage road usage occurs from March 15th to May 1st. 
Correct choice to see if the plan to conserve the roads will succeed, we need to know if the roads are used substantially during this period.
if it was not so then the plan to conserve will not do very well,while if the roads are heavily used then the plan will work wonders.

D. Whether some sections of the carriage roads are more susceptible to damage from overuse than others. 
we already know that some sections are open and some are not, knowing this will not help a lot to the overall plan.

E. Whether a substantial percentage of visitors to the park ride their bikes on the carriage roads during their visit.  
this point is out of scope because we are not discussing the choice of transport for the visitors but whether if the impact of the transport modes can be minimized. because both bikes and walking damages the roads.

Bishal123456789 · Answer

VeritasKarishma  Please explain why option C is correct and option E is wrong

redskull1 · Answer

A is not a strong option.I but feel there is something fishy going on with C.

The argument is telling " the road is soft and more easily damaged " between march 15th and may 1st.Hence " we will have to place restrictions " .Whether considerable percentage occurs, or does not occur is a little out of scope. Would love some experts opinion.

KarishmaB · Answer

Useful to evaluate questions are usually a bit tricky. You should try to answer the question in 2 ways - with a yes and a no and see if it matters.

- Gravel carriage roads are closed to vehicular traffic but open to a variety of other uses. 
- To limit the damage from overuse during the course of a year, park officials are imposing strict rules from March 15th to May 1st 
- At this time, the roads are especially soft and more easily damaged
 - Horses and bikes will be prohibited and walkers and runners will only be allowed on certain sections.

Which of the following will be useful to evaluate?

A. Whether bikes and horses cause more damage to the carriage roads than walkers and runners do.

Irrelevant. It doesn't matter which one causes more damage. Even if bikes and horses cause less damage than walkers and runners, it may not be possible to ban walkers and runners completely. If on a scale of 1 to 10, bikes cause damage of 4 and runners cause a damage of 5, does it mean that the plan will not be successful?

B. Whether snowmobilers are allowed to use the carriage roads during the winter months.

We do not know whether snowmobilers damage the road so knowing this doesn't help.

C. Whether a considerable percentage of carriage road usage occurs from March 15th to May 1st.

We want to reduce the damage to the road. We are banning certain usage from March 15th to May 1st. There should be some percentage of usage in this time. What if the road is not used at all anyway in this time? Then banning it at this time will not reduce damage. 
You can answer this question in two ways:
Yes, a considerable percentage of carriage road usage occurs from March 15th to May 1st - Then the ban will help reduce damage
No, there is little carriage road usage from March 15th to May 1st - Then the ban may not help in limiting damage

D. Whether some sections of the carriage roads are more susceptible to damage from overuse than others.

Irrelevant. Even if some sections are more susceptible to damage and some less, it doesn't tell us whether it affects the success of our plan.

E. Whether a substantial percentage of visitors to the park ride their bikes on the carriage roads during their visit.

It doesn't specify the time period. Even if a substantial percentage of visitors to the park ride their bikes on the carriage roads during their visit, what if they do it in June - July? A yes or a no here doesn't help us evaluate the success of our plan until and unless we have more information.

Answer (C)

MPRS22 · Answer

VeritasKarishma

Hi Karishma, I think there is a flaw here with C. Even if a small percentage of carriage road usage occurs from March 15th to May 1st, if the road is especially soft as the stem claims, then there might be issues nonetheless, regardless of how many people come. On the other hand if A is true, if horses and bikes don't cause more damage the plan can succeed, otherwise it can fail

AndrewN  your thoughts on this

AndrewN · Answer

Hello,  MPRS22 . I do think that (A) and (C) represent the two best options of those presented, and I did weigh the pros and cons of each before I settled on (C). Why? Because the question stem asks about the  most useful  consideration of the options provided, and whether certain types of human activities cause more damage than others, as choice (A) has us ponder, they still fall under the larger consideration of  when  people are using the roads, and in what numbers. Even if bikes and horses cause more trail damage, as we might expect to be the case, perhaps one horse ride or one cyclist would do  less  damage than ten or fifteen walkers or runners on the same trails, and the same could be said of averages (e.g., 10 cyclists or equestrians versus 100 or 150 walkers or runners). So, it seems to me as though monitoring road usage within the given timeframe would provide  more  useful information than knowing a yes/no answer to the question raised in (A).

I hope that proves useful to you. Thank you for thinking to ask.

- Andrew

In Acadia National Park, there is a large network of gravel

Prep Toolkit

Top 5 GMAT Debrief Videos

615 to 715 in 15 Days (Ria's Strategies)

More than Quant/Verbal Abilities: Speed vs. Accuracy

745 with Only Self-Prep and GMAT Club

From 555 to 765: 210-point Improvement

Perfect 805 Score Debrief by Julia

My Rewards

GMAT Critical Reasoning (CR) Questions

In Acadia National Park, there is a large network of gravel

Prep Toolkit

615 to 715 in 15 Days (Ria's Strategies)

More than Quant/Verbal Abilities: Speed vs. Accuracy

745 with Only Self-Prep and GMAT Club

From 555 to 765: 210-point Improvement

Perfect 805 Score Debrief by Julia

My Rewards