Increasing economic activity in Tranceland has led to an increased dem

Question

Increasing economic activity in Tranceland has led to an increased demand for paper, a trend that is expected to continue. Paper mills have to be constructed at specific geographical locations to satisfy the heavy dependency of the mills on water. However, hardly any such location suitable for setting up paper mills has been left unexploited by the city’s paper tycoons, ruling out the option of setting up more mills to meet the rising demand for paper. Therefore, to prevent a shortage of paper, the administration should pass regulations mandating that commercial departments of the city curtail their paper-based activities and undertake paper recycling measures.

The administration’s proposal assumes which of the following?

(A)The existing paper mills are currently working at their peak capacity and cannot be pushed to produce more to meet all of the growing demand for paper
(B)Tranceland’s water resources are limited and cannot satisfy all the industrial needs of the city.
(C)Tranceland’s commercial departments will not find it inconvenient to convert their paper transactions to online transactions.
(D)The costs undertaken by the commercial departments for their paper-based transactions are not significantly lower than those for recycling of paper. 
(E)Recycling of paper by the commercial departments will significantly ease the pressure on the currently functioning paper mills.

JyotiA · Answer

can someone eplain why E is not correct.

tittoo · Answer

E is wrong because recycling and curtailing paper based activities will help to prevent a shortage of paper, not overcome the pressure on current paper mills. 
The author actually thinks that the current paper mills will have to continue to work at the level they are currently working at, the proposed plan is not going to slow or shut them down.

rushi5656 · Answer

why not E? and a is just stating what is given already

rye · Answer

I too chose E but now think that A is better. Since implementing E will not ease the pressure (imagine factory needs more water although it is still running at 70% capacity). E does not state whether the factories will get access to more water if recycling is in place i.e. implementing E will not help with the original problem. A on the other hand clearly states the assumption i.e. factories are at 100% capacity with no other access to more water, and therefore recycling will reduce the amount of paper required, which shall reduce the load on factories to produce less paper, which meets the demand, with sufficient water.

jaisonsunny77 · Answer

(A)The existing paper mills are currently working at their peak capacity and cannot be pushed to produce more to meet all of the growing demand for paper - if this were not true, then it would imply that the existing mills can still increase its production to meet the growing demand for paper, thereby weakening the conclusion. However, if this were true, then it would support the argument by emphasizing that the existing mills cannot do anything further to increase production, thereby facilitating the new for a new method to sustain the growing demand. hence,   (A) is the right answer choice.   
 (B)Tranceland’s water resources are limited and cannot satisfy all the industrial needs of the city.  -  the passage is not concerned with satisfying all the "industrial needs" of the city.  
(C)Tranceland’s commercial departments will not find it inconvenient to convert their paper transactions to online transactions.  -  the passage is not concerned with the convenience of anyone or any entity.   
(D)The costs undertaken by the commercial departments for their paper-based transactions are not significantly lower than those for recycling of paper.  -  the passage is not concerned with ''costs''   
(E)Recycling of paper by the commercial departments will significantly ease the pressure on the currently functioning paper mills.  -  the passage is not concerned with ''easing the pressure''

adstudy · Answer

Option A is the correct answer because if the current paper mills are not working at their maximum capacity, then why this argument is required in the first place

Hence author has to assume this. Other options can be eliminated as follows - Option B - Even if water resources are limited, they can still be used to their maximum capacity. But the prompt already says that all water resources have already been exploited, less or more. This may work as a good to know fact but definitely does not stand as an assumption in any way. Option C - We do not know anything about online transactions. Although this may be true in the real world, but we can not let that in on the gmat world without stating it. Option D - The fact of the matter is that we require paper for transactions. Cost higher or lower does not matter and hence cannot be assumed as well. Option E - This option we do not have to assume. This is already stated in the last sentence of the prompt. Not an assumption, if it is already mentioned in the prompt.

Rashed12 · Answer

The question is administration's proposal that lies in last sentence. So E is the answer because when it is negative -recycling of paper by the commercial departments will not significantly ease the pressure, it will not prevent shortage of paper. In the sense, E is right. A is also right regarding whole statement consideration. Would you any one give me a proper logic that why E is incorrect considering my stated assumption?

sanjayparihar16 · Answer

E is incorrect because we do not know the status of recyclability currently.
It might be possible that they are actually recycling the papers and in that case this assumption wouldn't break the conclusion.

Posted from my mobile device

CrackverbalGMAT · Answer

Pre-thinking:

Conclusion:  To prevent a shortage of paper, the administration should pass regulations mandating that commercial departments of the city curtail their paper-based activities and undertake paper recycling measures.

Premises (Why?):

i) Increasing economic activity in Tranceland has led to an increased demand for paper.
ii) This trend is expected to continue.
iii) Paper mills need to be located such that their water needs can be met.
iv) All such locations are already occupied --> No new mills can be set up.

Given the above, we can surmise that the only way that the increasing demand for paper can be met is:

i) If capacity of existing mills is increased.
ii) If increased demand from some areas is offset by decreased demand in other areas.

The conclusion states that the way out is to implement solution (ii) presented above. Therefore, it presumably rules out the possibility of (i). Now let us analyze the answer options:

(A)The existing paper mills are currently working at their peak capacity and cannot be pushed to produce more to meet all of the growing demand for paper  Consistent with our pre-thinking. Correct answer.

(B)Tranceland’s water resources are limited and cannot satisfy all the industrial needs of the city.  Does not address the conclusion in any way. Irrelevant. Eliminate.

(C)Tranceland’s commercial departments will not find it inconvenient to convert their paper transactions to online transactions.  This implies that implementing the suggested plan of action would not be possible, or at least not easy. This could potentially act as a weakener for the conclusion and hence cannot be an underlying assumption. Eliminate.

(D)The costs undertaken by the commercial departments for their paper-based transactions are not significantly lower than those for recycling of paper.  Same as (C). Eliminate.

(E)Recycling of paper by the commercial departments will significantly ease the pressure on the currently functioning paper mills.  The conclusion deals with merely  preventing shortage of paper . This option assumes that currently the paper mills are functioning under pressure - something not borne out by the stimulus. Also, it is possible that the measure only marginally eases the pressure (if existent) and not significantly. All things considered, several question marks on this option and (A) is a much cleaner one. Eliminate.

Hope this helps.

pratikpokharkar · Answer

Hi,

I wold like to share my analogy for E being incorrect in Q1.

Option E states that "Recycling of paper by the commercial departments  will significantly ease the pressure on the currently functioning paper mills."

It implies that these mills are currently under pressure wherein first line in says  "a trend that is expected to continue
 "

It means currently mills are not under pressure.

Hence E is wrong. Hope it makes sence.

VerbalBot · Answer

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Increasing economic activity in Tranceland has led to an increased dem

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