In the winter of 2007, after several tenants of Bledsoe Gardens,

Question

In the winter of 2007, after several tenants of Bledsoe Gardens, a Dallas nursing home, complained that their refrigerators were leaking, the administrators of the home elected to lower the base central heating temperature for all units by 3.5 degrees Fahrenheit. Subsequently, no more leaking was reported for the rest of the winter. In a memo to affiliated nursing homes throughout the county, one Bledsoe Gardens administrator later recommended that they consider a similar temperature adjustment in order to avoid refrigerator leakage and associated costs.

Which of the following is an assumption that the administrator made?

(A) The tenants whose refrigerators leaked had turned up the heat in their units manually.

(B) The initial assessment had accurately identified the cause of the refrigerator leakage.

(C) The refrigerators in other homes were of the same model as those at Bledsoe Gardens.

(D) Excessive heating had been causing refrigerators to leak and would do so all winter.

(E) The base central heating temperature was consistent among all the homes in question.

Camach700 · Accepted Answer

Hi all, here is my explanation:

This is an assumption question; therefore we are looking for an implied premise that justifies the argument logic. It is like fixing a small leap in logic. Keeping this in mind, we can tackle the question.

Text: One of the nursing homes complains that refrigerators are leaking --> administrators lower the base central heating temperature --> Problem solved for the rest of the winter --> Bledsoe Gardens administrator recommends to other nursing homes to repeat the procedure in the case refrigerators happened to leak again in any of the nursing homes.

What is the assumption made by Bledsoe Gardens administrator?

A. Out of scope: This answer choice is trying to deceive the test taker, implying that if the administrator solved the problem by lowering the temperature it should be true that the tenants had previously raised the temperature manually. We do not really care about WHY the refrigerators started leaking, it could have happened for whatever reason.

B. CORRECT. This perfectly fix our leap in logic. Why should the tenant have recommended to all other nursing houses to lower the temperature if their refrigerators started leaking? The only reason is that the administrators who lowered the temperature of the base heating central had correctly identified the causes of the leakege, otherwise lowering the temperature could not have worked.

C. Irrelevant. We do not care about other refrigerator models. Lowering the base central heating temperature will subsequently lower the temperature of other nursing homes. How it happens is not our focus.

D. Out of scope (see A). Again, the argument is not concerned about what caused the refrigerators to leak. The focus is rather on what justifies the tenant recommendation.

E. Good guess. This answer is an assumption made by the argument. Though, it DOES NOT address the main point here. The assumption that we are looking for, builds a bridge between the action of the administrators, who lowered the temperature of the base heating central, and the recommendation of the Bledsoe Gardens administrator to all other nursing houses.

In fact, the question IS NOT "What assumption does the argument make?", RATHER "Which of the following is an assumption that the administrator made?". In order for him recommend to all the other nursing houses to lower the temperature, he must have assumed that the administrators of the home correctly identified the problem, thus solving it by lowering the temperature, and that since they have correctly identified the causes, this procedure will work also for other nursing houses. He could even oversee the fact that the temperature of the base heating central is consistent with the temperature of other nursing homes. The only thing he is thinking is: "By doing X the problem was solved, so I am going to recommend to all others to do X in order to solve the same problem"

Kudos are well accepted if you liked my explanation

TheNightKing · Answer

Hello, Can you please specify the source?

Thank you!

globaldesi · Answer

I feel E is also the probable answer since one can simply assume that recommendation is helpful only d base temperature is constant for all

vishmba · Answer

Can you please clarify? The assumption is that the base temp is consistent, why is the correct answer B?

Posted from my mobile device

Kanika3agg · Answer

I marked E as answer. Shouldn't this be the assumption that you can lower down the temperature in the homes? 
 
Also, in QS, it is written that consider lowering down your temperature not that initial assessment had accurately identified the cause.

Adedami · Answer

I marked B as my answer and i am so happy i got it right. Here is why i think B is the right answer,
The conclusion states that the nursing homes should do exactly what was done previously in order to avoid what happened before,this means they took what they did to remedy the previous similar situation as the solution to the problem,hence saying that the temperature ish was the cause of the leak.

Posted from my mobile device

Snehaaa · Answer

GMATNinja  can you please explain OE

PinakiRDas · Answer

To me there are 2 concrete assumptions - 1. Leaking cause 2. Other refrigerators are the same.

So how can we zero down? I was down to B and C

DinoPen · Answer

I chose B. 
The argument relies on the fact that the Administrators corrected the leaking problem by increasing the temperature. Due to this relationship, increasing temperature leads to decreased leaks, the administrators assume that the temperature was the problem.

VerbalBot · Answer

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In the winter of 2007, after several tenants of Bledsoe Gardens,

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In the winter of 2007, after several tenants of Bledsoe Gardens,

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