V02-36

Question

The Dear One Baby Carrier is marketed as the safest baby carrier currently available. It features a hard plastic shell that protects against external impacts and a thick interior cushion designed to absorb shocks. The interior has been tested with thousands of infants, and ergonomic handles are designed for ease of use by parents. A key feature, the ability to convert the carrier into a car seat, is said to reduce risks associated with moving a baby between separate carriers and car seats.
 
Which of the following, if true, would most seriously weaken the safety claim made about the Dear One Baby Carrier?

A. Studies show that infant injuries at home often occur even when parents are using baby carriers correctly.
B. Many parents mistakenly believe that placing a carrier in the front seat is safe, despite airbag risks.
C. A consumer group rated the Dear One Baby Carrier as one of the easiest products to travel with.
D. Some parents find the Dear One’s rigid shell makes harness fastening awkward, so they occasionally leave straps slightly loose.
E. Pediatric safety experts have found that carriers that convert into car seats often fail to meet car seat safety standards.

Bunuel · Answer

Official Solution:

The Dear One Baby Carrier is marketed as the safest baby carrier currently available. It features a hard plastic shell that protects against external impacts and a thick interior cushion designed to absorb shocks. The interior has been tested with thousands of infants, and ergonomic handles are designed for ease of use by parents. A key feature, the ability to convert the carrier into a car seat, is said to reduce risks associated with moving a baby between separate carriers and car seats.
 
Which of the following, if true, would most seriously weaken the safety claim made about the Dear One Baby Carrier?

A. Studies show that infant injuries at home often occur even when parents are using baby carriers correctly.
B. Many parents mistakenly believe that placing a carrier in the front seat is safe, despite airbag risks.
C. A consumer group rated the Dear One Baby Carrier as one of the easiest products to travel with.
D. Some parents find the Dear One’s rigid shell makes harness fastening awkward, so they occasionally leave straps slightly loose.
E. Pediatric safety experts have found that carriers that convert into car seats often fail to meet car seat safety standards.

A. Studies show that infant injuries at home often occur even when parents are using baby carriers correctly.
 Incorrect: The passage makes a claim about the safety of the Dear One Baby Carrier in particular. This option discusses general infant injury statistics, not a specific unsafe feature of this product or any of its claimed safety benefits.

B. Many parents mistakenly believe that placing a carrier in the front seat is safe, despite airbag risks.
 Incorrect: The option refers to a general misuse of baby carriers by some parents. It does not weaken any specific claim made about the Dear One Baby Carrier’s design or safety features. The carrier’s safety is evaluated based on its features, not on user behavior unrelated to its construction.

C. A consumer group rated the Dear One Baby Carrier as one of the easiest products to travel with.
 Incorrect: This option speaks to convenience, not safety. The manufacturer’s claims are based on physical safety features of the carrier, so an endorsement of its portability does not weaken the argument.

D. Some parents find the Dear One’s rigid shell makes harness fastening awkward, so they occasionally leave straps slightly loose.
 Incorrect: Because the argument’s claim rests on the carrier’s built-in protections (shell, cushioning, car-seat conversion), a sporadic, user-dependent lapse does little to undercut the manufacturer’s assertion that the Dear One is the safest carrier available. Parents are just not using all the safety features here.

E. Pediatric safety experts have found that carriers that convert into car seats often fail to meet car seat safety standards.
 Correct: This option undermines one of the key safety claims of the Dear One Baby Carrier — that its ability to convert into a car seat reduces risk. If experts say these dual-use products often do not meet safety standards, and Dear One Baby Carirer is a dual-use product, it casts doubt on the safety of this particular feature and therefore weakens the argument as a whole.

Answer: E

Bunuel · Answer

The question or/and solution has been revised and edited. Thank you  sayantanc2k  !!!

wolfof6thstreet · Answer

Not a fan of this question and think the wording could be tightened up in the beginning. The claim is that "The Dear One Baby Carrier is the safest and most comfortable baby CARRIER available today." They never claim that it is the safest car seat. While one could then make the point that they later reference a car seat as a different type of carrier, it is still ambiguous because they also make the distinction between an AT-LARGE CARRIER and a CAR SEAT... which then again favor carrier and car seat being two different things.

Given the above, I chose answer choice D as an equally somewhat correct answer given the lack of completeness of answer choice E. The stretch for assuming a choking hazard as being a safety hazard is about the same stretch of assuming CARRIER and CAR SEAT are one in the same. I get where you tried to imply that Dear One Baby receives the material from a third-party manufacturer and that the risk isn't passed onto the consumer; however, that is not conveyed well in the answer choice and it can easily be interpreted as the manufacturer (possibly Dear One Baby) sending out the carrier with packaging around the bedding material being a choking hazard, and thus not safe for the baby. This is even more likely since most carriers in real life, you have to do some assembling yourself.

It's a good question to get you thinking, but most official GMAT questions don't have gaps like the above. Well at least none that I've seen.

bb · Answer

Sorry it took me 10 days to get back to your point. Thank you for the feedback!
A fair point and appreciate not trashing the question completely. I have made some tweaks to the original text to add that the claim was from advertising. I hope that addresses the concern but let me know if you still feel it is not tight enough. Verbal question writing is a process unfortunately. This question survived for 10 years without a comment 😲

SKDEV · Answer

Not very satisfied with the answer, "Numerous articles written by various renowned safety specialists have pointed out that at-large baby carriers do not safely double as car seats." - It doesn't say  Dear One Baby Carrier  do not safely double as car seats. What if they have safety measures in them which are not there in other carriers? Its an attack to the baby carriers not on the Dear one. It doesn't say "All" baby carriers, just says "At Large" we dont know if it includes Dear one.
Thoughts ?  Sajjad1994   GMATNinja

Dbrunik · Answer

I think this is a  high-quality  question and I agree with explanation. great question. you have to recognize that D is wrong because even if the bedding material has a suffocation warning, this does less to undermine the case than E because Even if D was true, it doesnt really tell us anything as to if it is the safest and most comfortable baby carrier available today.

Ro_007 · Answer

Safely doubling as car seat is not one of the promises of the the brand. The brand's promise is to reduce the "risk of transfer" from carrier to car seat. I dont think Option E does justice to this as a solid weakener.

Can you pls correct me if I am wrong

Can you pls correct me if I am wrong

bb · Answer

Hi. Thank you for the question.

While the brand doesn't state "this is a safe car seat," it implies that converting into a car seat is part of why the carrier is safe overall.

That’s the reason for (E) being a weakener.

If experts say that this type of dual-function product is inherently unsafe, it casts doubt on the brand’s claim to overall safety, especially since that conversion feature is presented as a safety benefit.

So (E) may not directly contradict the brand’s literal words, but it undermines the implied reasoning supporting the safety claim.

bb · Answer

P.S. I have gone ahead and still revised the answer choices a bit, mostly for grammar and made the A less irrelevant so that it is not completely irrelevant.

Aumaim · Answer

I like the solution - it’s helpful.

Jayant9090 · Answer

(E)- Pediatric safety experts have found that carriers that convert into car seats often fail to meet car seat safety standards.

Its an attack to the baby carriers( generalized ) not on the Dear one. It doesn't say "All" baby carriers, just says " Often " we don't know if it includes Dear one or not.  
  For this option to weaken the argument, we have to  assume  that it falls under the "Often" category.

Thoughts????

annantporwal · Answer

I like the solution - it’s helpful.

Abhishek_Relan · Answer

I like the solution - it’s helpful.

bb · Answer

Thank you Jayant9090 - you have an good point. I even originally though it would be a problem.
However, I have reviewed some official questions and there are cases when a category is used to prove a category member.

This one comes to mind: https://gmatclub.com/forum/in-the-past- ... 23085.html. Looking for more.

P.S. I am updating the answer choice D, however, to make it trickier.

_ankitchawla_ · Answer

I like the solution - it’s helpful.

alexisthekid · Answer

Hi guys, I must admit that I am a bit confused by the question here.

I now understand how E allows us to cast some doubt on the conclusion, however I believe that D is an extremely plausible alternative as well.

The premises states: The Dear One Baby Carrier is marketed as the safest baby carrier currently available.-> We are looking to WEAKEN this assumption.

Considering answer D, we have: "The Dear One???s rigid shell makes fastening the harness awkward, so many parents leave the straps looser than safety guidelines recommend.".
The explanation provided asserts that this isn't the correct answer as this is due to user error and not an inherent design failure, HOWEVER I have trouble agreeing with this as the user error is directly CAUSED by a design failure (ex: like not putting on/ not wearing properly your seatbelt in a car because the seatbelts are very hard/ uncomfortable to use; this is indeed a case of user error but this is directly caused by the product's faulty design).

Lastly, the explanation provided for whyD is incorrect also states that "Moreover, we don't know how much loose straps are an issue.". While I do concede that this is a valid point, I believe one could also make the case that anything failing to meet the safety guidelines threshold is most likely to be, to some extent, unsafe, and therefore this could also serve as a weakener for the premises.

Thanks in advance for the help!:D

hr1212 · Answer

Hi  alexisthekid ,

I do see your point here for D.

“The Dear One’s rigid shell makes fastening the harness awkward, so many parents leave the straps looser than safety guidelines recommend.”

The first part of this sentence could point to a design flaw rather than user error, which makes it harder to place full responsibility on the parents. If the shell weren’t rigid, perhaps parents would have no trouble following the safety guidelines, so it's tough to argue that the issue is purely about misuse. One could also argue that the awkwardness is caused by the product’s design but still parents could have followed the safety guideline to the T which they preferred not to. So, this feels like a bit of a gray area that invites assumptions on both sides. Maybe a slight rewording could help clarify the intent and avoid this ambiguity.

bb  — curious to hear your thoughts on this?

bb · Answer

I have added a tweak but I personally disagree as I felt awkward is not a safety level argument. For example the back seats in my car seat belts are very awkward to use - plugging in the seat belt is a pain but that does not make the car less safe when used correctly, just inconvenient to use but if people don't use seat belts due to convenience, they are making the car less safe by choice not by design. However, I changed D anyway.

isteducimus · Answer

If that is the case, why can't A be an answer choice?  Studies show that infant injuries at home often occur even when parents are using baby carriers correctly - how come Dear One Baby carrier not included in such carriers category?
Its explanation for being incorrect - "The passage makes a claim about the safety of the Dear One Baby Carrier in particular. This option discusses general infant injury statistics, not a specific unsafe feature of this product or any of its claimed safety benefits." - proves to be bit hypocrite, biased? This option also says "often"..

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