An experiment at Long Island High School revealed that students

Question

An experiment at Long Island High School revealed that students who have low grades in English tend to score much lower on logic tests than do students with average or high grades in English. It can be concluded from this experiment that good command over English improves logic.

The researcher’s conclusion depends on which of the following assumptions?

A. English contributes more to logic than other areas like Mathematics do.
B. English and logic are fundamentally similar.
C. Students with good English cannot score low in logic tests.
D. Lack of logical thinking ability does not cause poor language skills.
E. English is one of the best ways to improve logic.

chetan2u · Accepted Answer

Straight logic or reasoning..
  people with A( high grades in English) have high B( score on logic tests) and people with (not A) have lower B.
So A leads to high B. 
Now with this type of reasoning, two types of question can be asked and both the question will have similar answer -  Why can't B lead to A  
1) If asked to find  a flaw in argument 
  B could be the reason for A.. 
2) If we are asked  to support the reasoning or an assumption. 
 So if reasoning is correct the assumption can be it is not vice versa that is "B is not the reason for A"

This is given by D
D. Lack of logical thinking ability(not B) does not cause poor language skills (not A).

Mona10031990 · Answer

please explain why D is correct answer..and not C

warrior1991 · Answer

The conclusion is that good command over English improves logic.

C. Students with good English cannot score low in logic tests.
  Negate this option:- Students with good English CAN score low in logic tests. This is saying about a possibility. However,this is not completely making the argument fall apart.

D. Lack of logical thinking ability does not cause poor language skills.
  Negate this option:- Lack of logical thinking ability  does not  causes poor language skills. This is reversing the cause and effect after negation.If the lack of logic is causing poor language skills,the argument will fall apart as in the argument it is said that A(Good English) leads to B(Improved Logic).

IMO D is correct.

carcass   GMATNinja  
 abhimahna 
 Skywalker18 
 gmatexam439

Kindly throw some light.

I hope that helps!!

gmatexam439 · Answer

Hi bro,
You reasoning is correct. This is a cause and effect question.

However, we can straight away cancel out C because it is an exaggerated choice. "Cannot" is an extremem word and in the given context isn't the correct word to be used

Posted from my mobile device

warrior1991 · Answer

Thanks for reverting !!
My first impression after looking at the option C was same.

AkshdeepS · Answer

I understood both the question types you mentioned above and I also marked the correct answer as D for the mentioned reason. I have somewhat mugged this up but still lacks the correct logic how avoiding the reverse cause can save the argument from falling apart.?

arvind910619 · Answer

Hi , Negate D and then you will come to understand that the argument does not make any sense. Here is the negated D Lack of logical thinking ability cause poor language skills. Notice i have removed does not from the original choice D. Now you can see that the whole premise falls apart and there is no point in discussing the findings in argument as they would be preposterous. Please read this Magoosh article by Mikemacgarry https://magoosh.com/gmat/2013/assumptio ... -the-gmat/. Hope it helps

abhinav770 · Answer

Hey, Mona10031990 ! Kindly allow me to explain. But first, let us examine the causality in the question passage. Students scoring low grades in English ===tend to====> score lower in logic tests. Students scoring average or high grades in english ===tend to====> score higher in logic tests than the ones who score low in english. There seems to be a causal relationship between scoring average/well in language and scoring better in logic tests. Scrolling with no Kudos?

arvind910619 · Answer

Hi Mona10031990,

Choice C does not help us. If student such is the case the it may so happen that the students who scored low in english may not have prepared for the test. Similarly he may not have studied for the logic test as well. So we can have multiple scenario.

Choice D on the other hand provides us with correct assumption that if negated destroy the argument.

nehasomani33 · Answer

generis

Hi, Can you please help me with the reasoning for not choosing option B.

IMO, If English and logic are fundamentally similar, then this relation between the two subjects will hold true.

If the person does not score well in English, this shows that the person is not fundamentally sound. Therefore, he cannot score well in logic.

Please bridge the gap in my understanding!

VerbalBot · Answer

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An experiment at Long Island High School revealed that students

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