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Difficulty:
65%
(hard)
Question Stats:
59% (01:59) correct
41%
(02:13)
wrong
based on 14748
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A moderately large city is redesigning its central downtown area and is considering a plan that would reduce the number of lanes for automobiles and trucks and increase those for bicycles and pedestrians. The intent is to attract more workers and shoppers to downtown businesses by making downtown easier to reach and more pleasant to move around in.
Which of the following would, if true, most strongly support the prediction that the plan would achieve its goal?
(A) People who make a habit of walking or bicycling whenever feasible derive significant health benefits from doing so.
(B) Most people who prefer to shop at suburban malls instead of downtown urban areas do so because parking is easier and cheaper at the former.
(C) In other moderately sized cities where measures were taken to make downtowns more accessible for walkers and cyclists, downtown businesses began to thrive.
(D) If the proposed lane restrictions on drivers are rigorously enforced, more people will likely be attracted to downtown businesses than would otherwise be.
(E) Most people who own and frequently ride bicycles for recreational purposes live at a significant distance from downtown urban areas.
CR95631.01
OG2020 NEW QUESTION
Which of the following would, if true, most strongly support the prediction that the plan would achieve its goal?
(A) People who make a habit of walking or bicycling whenever feasible derive significant health benefits from doing so.
(B) Most people who prefer to shop at suburban malls instead of downtown urban areas do so because parking is easier and cheaper at the former.
(C) In other moderately sized cities where measures were taken to make downtowns more accessible for walkers and cyclists, downtown businesses began to thrive.
(D) If the proposed lane restrictions on drivers are rigorously enforced, more people will likely be attracted to downtown businesses than would otherwise be.
(E) Most people who own and frequently ride bicycles for recreational purposes live at a significant distance from downtown urban areas.
CR95631.01
OG2020 NEW QUESTION
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25 Oct 2019, 12:11
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Sometimes I hate CR
I can swear that I've seen tons of other questions where the answer format "research from other cities/countries/communities shows that XYZ had a similar effect ..." was classified as out of the scope, yet in this question it is the prefered answer choice again.
Probably could argue hours about this but to me the OA is to ambigous and out of the scope to be the correct answer choice. Imagine that City X is in California while City Y is in Alaska, can we inference that the measure in California would have similar impact as in Alaska? Probably not.
Really hard to see what they want sometimes on CR, feels like sometimes X and sometimes Y.
In general I feel that the CR format of "choose the best out of the worst" is not really a good question format.
I can swear that I've seen tons of other questions where the answer format "research from other cities/countries/communities shows that XYZ had a similar effect ..." was classified as out of the scope, yet in this question it is the prefered answer choice again.
Probably could argue hours about this but to me the OA is to ambigous and out of the scope to be the correct answer choice. Imagine that City X is in California while City Y is in Alaska, can we inference that the measure in California would have similar impact as in Alaska? Probably not.
Really hard to see what they want sometimes on CR, feels like sometimes X and sometimes Y.
In general I feel that the CR format of "choose the best out of the worst" is not really a good question format.
Updated on: 29 Aug 2024, 21:52
Originally posted by AnishPassi on 29 Mar 2020, 04:00.
Last edited by AnishPassi on 29 Aug 2024, 21:52, edited 12 times in total.
Last edited by AnishPassi on 29 Aug 2024, 21:52, edited 12 times in total.
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I think a nuance of option D has been missed in many explanations. So while many of us have eliminated D, it is not for the right reasons.
In other words, the explanations go something along these lines:
1. We need to support the prediction that implementing lane restrictions will attract more people to downtown businesses.
2. (D) states: If lane restrictions are enforced rigorously, more people will be attracted to downtown businesses.
3. Since we do not know whether the restrictions will be rigorously enforced, this option is incorrect.
Or, put another way, a common explanation is:
1. The answer choice is of the form If X then Y.
2. Since we don’t know whether X will happen, we can’t say whether Y will happen.
Thus the option doesn’t support.
I have two issues with such reasoning.
1. My first issue: The question stem.
The prediction.
What is the prediction?
That the plan would achieve its goal.
The prediction is not that the plan will be executed.
The prediction is not that the goal will be achieved.
The prediction is, I repeat, that the plan would achieve its goal.
Let’s say I make a prediction:
Cleaning our surroundings (plan) will make India a better travel destination (goal).
Am I making all of the following predictions:
1. We'll clean our surroundings.
2. India will become a better travel destination.
3. Cleaning our surroundings will make India a better travel destination.
?
I am not making the first two predictions.
Will we clean our surroundings? I don't know.
Will India become a better travel destination? I don't know.
But, I do predict that if we clean our surroundings, India will become a better travel destination.
Back to the question.
The correct answer doesn't need to support that 'the lane restrictions will be implemented' (plan).
The correct answer doesn't need to support that 'more workers and shoppers will be attracted to the downtown businesses' (goal).
The correct answer needs to support the prediction that 'implementing the lane restrictions will attract more workers and shoppers to downtown businesses' (the plan would achieve its goal).
Put another way, the correct answer needs to support the statement that 'if the lane restrictions are implemented, more workers and shoppers will be attracted to downtown businesses' (i.e., if the plan is implemented, the goal will be achieved).
2. My second issue: Understanding what the answer choice means.
Option D does not present a conditional in the sense that these posts explain. It presents a comparison. We must understand the comparison clearly.
The option includes the following phrase: "more people will likely be attracted to downtown businesses"
Question for you: more people than what?
Go ahead, think of an answer for this.
Is your answer: more people will likely be attracted to downtown businesses than are currently attracted to downtown businesses?
That understanding is incorrect.
What is the 'otherwise' situation?
If I say: If 'X' happens, more people will be attracted than would otherwise be.
What is the 'otherwise' situation? If 'X' doesn't happen, right?
i.e. If 'X' happens, more people will be attracted than would be the case if 'X' doesn't happen.
Let's expand that to the answer choice.
(D) If the proposed lane restrictions on drivers are rigorously enforced (If X happens), more people will likely be attracted to downtown businesses than would otherwise be (i.e., if X doesn't happen).
Which of the following interpretations of the answer choice is correct?
I. If lane restrictions are rigorously enforced, more people will be attracted to downtown businesses than would be the case if the lane restrictions were not enforced (i.e. compared with the current scenario). (wrong)
or,
II. If lane restrictions are rigorously enforced, more people will be attracted to downtown businesses than would be the case if the lane restrictions are not rigorously enforced. (i.e., a comparison between two hypothetical scenarios) (correct)
The first interpretation compares a situation in which lane restrictions are implemented and rigorously enforced, and a situation in which the restrictions are not even implemented (the present scenario).
The second interpretation compares a situation in which lane restrictions are rigorously enforced and a situation in which lane restrictions are not rigorously enforced.
I hope you notice now that the option actually means the second interpretation (II).
Now on to the reasoning.
Question: What would support the prediction that the plan would attract more people to downtown businesses?
But, how does this chunk of the population that appreciates lane restrictions relate to the total visitors to downtown? How many people would prefer to not have the lane restrictions to visit downtown? Do those 10,000 people represent more people than currently visit downtown? We have no idea.
Here's another example to explain this option:
Let's say in a country the voters are to decide between two parties: Marvel (incumbent) and DC.
Now, let's say we have to figure out whether DC would be better than Marvel. And, we're given that If DC governs well then more people would be happy than would be the case if DC does not govern well. Does this statement lead us to understand how DC would fare against Marvel? It doesn't. The comparison is within two DC situations.
Answer choice D follows a similar structure.
This answer choice has no impact on the argument.
Now, let's add option C to the mix.
I often find students struggle with analogies in strengthen questions.
"If it worked for y, what's the guarantee that it'll work for x as well?" - a paraphrase of a question I often find GMAT takers wondering about.
Answer: There is no guarantee. However, we aren't looking for a guarantee. We are looking for support.
e.g.
Do you sometimes go through reviews on Amazon and other e-commerce sites before making your purchase? Why?
Even if a product has great reviews, what's the guarantee that you'd like it as well?
And the answer is the same. There is no guarantee. However, your belief in the product would increase after looking at positive reviews, no?
The same reasoning applies here. Remember 'support' or 'strengthen' does not mean 'confirm'.
In this question, option D is incorrect (it does not support at all), and option C is correct (it supports).
Here is an article (and a video) in which I discuss analogies in CR answer choices in more detail: https://gmatclub.com/forum/how-to-handl ... 70572.html.
Quote:
Most explanations eliminate D by stating that the option presents a conditional and that the added condition ('rigorously enforced') is an additional requirement that we cannot assume must be met.
In other words, the explanations go something along these lines:
1. We need to support the prediction that implementing lane restrictions will attract more people to downtown businesses.
2. (D) states: If lane restrictions are enforced rigorously, more people will be attracted to downtown businesses.
3. Since we do not know whether the restrictions will be rigorously enforced, this option is incorrect.
Or, put another way, a common explanation is:
1. The answer choice is of the form If X then Y.
2. Since we don’t know whether X will happen, we can’t say whether Y will happen.
Thus the option doesn’t support.
I have two issues with such reasoning.
1. My first issue: The question stem.
Quote:
What do we need to support?
The prediction.
What is the prediction?
That the plan would achieve its goal.
The prediction is not that the plan will be executed.
The prediction is not that the goal will be achieved.
The prediction is, I repeat, that the plan would achieve its goal.
Let’s say I make a prediction:
Cleaning our surroundings (plan) will make India a better travel destination (goal).
Am I making all of the following predictions:
1. We'll clean our surroundings.
2. India will become a better travel destination.
3. Cleaning our surroundings will make India a better travel destination.
?
I am not making the first two predictions.
Will we clean our surroundings? I don't know.
Will India become a better travel destination? I don't know.
But, I do predict that if we clean our surroundings, India will become a better travel destination.
Back to the question.
The correct answer doesn't need to support that 'the lane restrictions will be implemented' (plan).
The correct answer doesn't need to support that 'more workers and shoppers will be attracted to the downtown businesses' (goal).
The correct answer needs to support the prediction that 'implementing the lane restrictions will attract more workers and shoppers to downtown businesses' (the plan would achieve its goal).
Put another way, the correct answer needs to support the statement that 'if the lane restrictions are implemented, more workers and shoppers will be attracted to downtown businesses' (i.e., if the plan is implemented, the goal will be achieved).
2. My second issue: Understanding what the answer choice means.
Option D does not present a conditional in the sense that these posts explain. It presents a comparison. We must understand the comparison clearly.
The option includes the following phrase: "more people will likely be attracted to downtown businesses"
Question for you: more people than what?
Go ahead, think of an answer for this.
Is your answer: more people will likely be attracted to downtown businesses than are currently attracted to downtown businesses?
That understanding is incorrect.
What is the 'otherwise' situation?
If I say: If 'X' happens, more people will be attracted than would otherwise be.
What is the 'otherwise' situation? If 'X' doesn't happen, right?
i.e. If 'X' happens, more people will be attracted than would be the case if 'X' doesn't happen.
Let's expand that to the answer choice.
(D) If the proposed lane restrictions on drivers are rigorously enforced (If X happens), more people will likely be attracted to downtown businesses than would otherwise be (i.e., if X doesn't happen).
Which of the following interpretations of the answer choice is correct?
I. If lane restrictions are rigorously enforced, more people will be attracted to downtown businesses than would be the case if the lane restrictions were not enforced (i.e. compared with the current scenario). (wrong)
or,
II. If lane restrictions are rigorously enforced, more people will be attracted to downtown businesses than would be the case if the lane restrictions are not rigorously enforced. (i.e., a comparison between two hypothetical scenarios) (correct)
The first interpretation compares a situation in which lane restrictions are implemented and rigorously enforced, and a situation in which the restrictions are not even implemented (the present scenario).
The second interpretation compares a situation in which lane restrictions are rigorously enforced and a situation in which lane restrictions are not rigorously enforced.
I hope you notice now that the option actually means the second interpretation (II).
Now on to the reasoning.
Question: What would support the prediction that the plan would attract more people to downtown businesses?
Quote:
Consider the following scenario: 10,000 people appreciate lane restrictions and would be interested to visit downtown if these restrictions were implemented. However, within that chunk, 4,000 people would only visit downtown if the restrictions are rigorously enforced. In other words, if lane restrictions are rigorously enforced, this entire chunk of the population would visit downtown. However, if the restrictions are not rigorously enforced, only a part of this population would visit downtown. This scenario is in line with option D.
But, how does this chunk of the population that appreciates lane restrictions relate to the total visitors to downtown? How many people would prefer to not have the lane restrictions to visit downtown? Do those 10,000 people represent more people than currently visit downtown? We have no idea.
Here's another example to explain this option:
Let's say in a country the voters are to decide between two parties: Marvel (incumbent) and DC.
Now, let's say we have to figure out whether DC would be better than Marvel. And, we're given that If DC governs well then more people would be happy than would be the case if DC does not govern well. Does this statement lead us to understand how DC would fare against Marvel? It doesn't. The comparison is within two DC situations.
Answer choice D follows a similar structure.
This answer choice has no impact on the argument.
Now, let's add option C to the mix.
Quote:
If in these other cities, similar measures led to the number of visitors going up from their initial numbers, aren't you relatively more convinced that these measures could lead to the number of visitors going beyond the current number in the city in question as well? Of course, there is no certainty. But we are not looking for something that would confirm the prediction. We're simply looking for support, not confirmation.
I often find students struggle with analogies in strengthen questions.
"If it worked for y, what's the guarantee that it'll work for x as well?" - a paraphrase of a question I often find GMAT takers wondering about.
Answer: There is no guarantee. However, we aren't looking for a guarantee. We are looking for support.
e.g.
Do you sometimes go through reviews on Amazon and other e-commerce sites before making your purchase? Why?
Even if a product has great reviews, what's the guarantee that you'd like it as well?
And the answer is the same. There is no guarantee. However, your belief in the product would increase after looking at positive reviews, no?
The same reasoning applies here. Remember 'support' or 'strengthen' does not mean 'confirm'.
In this question, option D is incorrect (it does not support at all), and option C is correct (it supports).
Here is an article (and a video) in which I discuss analogies in CR answer choices in more detail: https://gmatclub.com/forum/how-to-handl ... 70572.html.
