V1, #6 CR, city council members

Question

Because city council members in small towns are intimately acquainted with the public they serve, they clearly have a more difficult job than city council members in larger cities.

The conclusion above rests on which of the following assumptions?

A, Working directly with members of the public is the one of the most challenging aspects of serving on a city council.

B, Managing the affairs of a large city requires a more significant time commitment than working directly with the public.

C, City council members in small towns are often related to a certain percentage of the population, making them intimately acquainted with the people they serve.

D, Residents of small towns often attend city council meetings to present their concerns.

E, City council members in large cities rarely engage the public directly.

rashminet84 · Answer

E IMO

The author assumes that only council members of smaller cities are intimately acquainted with public, the ones in large cities are not. E is stating this assumption.

Whats the OA?

vannu · Answer

I opt for A.

Working directly with members of the public is the one of the most challenging aspects of serving on a city council.

Because city council members in small towns are intimately acquainted with the public they serve ( Working directly with members of the public is the one of the most challenging aspects of serving on a city council. ) , they clearly have a more difficult job than city council members in larger cities.

OA,please.

tejal777 · Answer

I know the OA is A but I am heavily bent on E.Could smebody please clarify the reasons why E is wrong?

ykaiim · Answer

In A, it is mentioned that working closely with the public is a challenging aspects of serving on a city council.

Does it mean that only this case is applicable for small city and not for large cities?
I think it is a generalised case for all cities.

Experts please comment.

ah64captain · Answer

am not an expert but seems to me:
(a) and (e) are both assumptions of the author,
(e) is somewhat implied by "Because city council members in small towns are intimately acquainted with the public they serve" (the oposite is implied) and (a) is a completely hidden assumption 
also (e) is too extreme: "rarly" (the author could only assume "City council members in large cities engage the public directly  less  than small cities city council members do)
therefore (a) is better
not sure if that one would pass as an official GMAT explanation...

Praetorian · Answer

Lets try negating the statements.

Negating this statement does not violate the premise. This says nothing about members in smaller towns

Practicegmat · Answer

Am also confused with (a) and (e)

If you negate (e) it becomes :
"City council members in large cities always engage the public directly" . That means the City council members in large cities also have a difficult job ahead.

Hence the conclusion "the city council members in small towns have a more difficult job than city council members in larger cities" falls apart . Both now have difficult job.No one has "more difficult" job.

Could anyone clarify why (a) suits better here than (e)?

Thanks

Sudhanshuacharya · Answer

I know the OA is given as A, but still, i would prefer E.
Reason: "intimately acquainted" and "Working directly with members of the public" are two different things.
If we choose A, then the statement A assumes that  only the city council members in small towns  are working directly with members of public.

Now in case of option E "City council members in large cities rarely engage the public directly." This clarifies that even if the City council members in large cities are intimately acquainted with the public they serve they will have no issue because council members of large cities do not engage directly with public.

prateekbhatt · Answer

Oh yeah will go with A...though was confused with the wordings...

A,  Working directly with members of the public  is the one of the most challenging aspects of serving on a city council

I guess it is not mentioned in the premise but assumption ques's are from family 2.

kostyan5 · Answer

The statement concludes that small city council has a more difficult job than a large city council. It says nothing about the difficulty of each. The assumption must be about the relative difficulty and not difficulty of any particular place.

In this case, we should be comparing small city council's involvement with public with that of the large city council.

E makes the best choice.

V1, #6 CR, city council members

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