Father: When my son was first caught lying, I was alarmed.

Question

Father: When my son was first caught lying, I was alarmed. Although I punished him adequately for his behavior, I noticed subsequently that lying was becoming a habit with him. It seems that my punishment actually led him to lie more.

Which one of the following, if true, most seriously weakens the conclusion drawn by the father?

A. On all other instances, the boy was found to correct his behavior after adequate punishment.
B. The boy did not lie within the first week of the punishment.
C. The father was so alarmed that he observed his son more closely than ever before.
D. The boy responded as expected to the punishment but its effect wore off with time, as is the case with many children.
E. Punishments do not generally work with children with behavioral problems as children need to be handled more gently in such cases.

Source : Expert Global

madhukaramar · Answer

Father: When my son was first caught lying, I was alarmed. Although I punished him adequately for his behavior, I noticed subsequently that lying was becoming a habit with him. It seems that my punishment actually led him to lie more.

Which one of the following, if true, most seriously weakens the conclusion drawn by the father?

A. On all other instances, the boy was found to correct his behavior after adequate punishment.
B. The boy did not lie within the first week of the punishment.
C. The father was so alarmed that he observed his son more closely than ever before.
D. The boy responded as expected to the punishment but its effect wore off with time, as is the case with many children.
E. Punishments do not generally work with children with behavioral problems as children need to be handled more gently in such cases.

Source : Expert Global

c is the correct Answer - So the child was not lying more , but father was giving more attention -

Aish94 · Answer

A - proves that the father's conclusion is incorrect

Sent from my Moto G (4) using  GMAT Club Forum mobile app

aragonn · Answer

Although Ans is C. If any specific question pls Post. I would love to help you.

AdityaHongunti · Answer

i marked C. but want to know on what terms do we eliminate D

deveshj21 · Answer

DEAR EXPERT,
PLEASE TELL ME WHY OPTION C IS INCORRECT.

Maxximus · Answer

Option C is correct.

Here is the video explanation-

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ddtLW5NP4Po

All the best!
Experts' Global team

navderm · Answer

D. The boy responded as expected to the punishment but its effect wore off with time, as is the case with many children.

This says that the effect of punishment wore of. If that is true, then the lying would not have increased. It would have remained at the same level. Like the illness can come back after medicine wears off but unless there is something more systemic, it won't go higher than before.

ragnarok13 · Answer

@ GMATNinjaTwo @ GMATNinja Option C : just because the father observed him more frequently doesnt necessarily indicate that the father's observation of the child lying more was wrong. The child could actually be lying more irrespective of observation

DmitryFarberMPrep · Answer

Yeah, that's an excellent point. This question could use some fine-tuning. Specifically, there's a difference between "After X, I noticed Y" and "After X, I noticed that Y was becoming a pattern." In the former case, C might make sense--just because you noticed Y after X, that doesn't mean Y wasn't already going on before. However, the latter case implies that there was in fact a clear pattern that wasn't there before. In that case, the degree of observation doesn't much matter. After all, we accept the premises as true!

Also, a real CR should not be in the first person or be about personal matters. If you see a CR question that uses "I" or "my," skip it and look for something more GMAT-like!

ragnarok13 · Answer

Thanks a lot!

Will keep this aspect in mind while approaching the CR questions.

dev21212121 · Answer

Hello, so this is a Gmat style cause effect question. Conclusion is punishment caused him to lie more i.e. (punishment → more lies). Now to weaken a causal argument, we need to find either an alternative cause or reverse the causality. So, here Option C rightly does that.It says, it's the father who observes more (so we now have an alternate cause to observing more lies coz maybe he did lie the same no of times before, but the father didn't observe keenly initially ).

Hope it Helps!!!!!

Hope it Helps!!!!!

Father: When my son was first caught lying, I was alarmed.

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

Father: When my son was first caught lying, I was alarmed.

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