J.J. Thomson, the discoverer of the electron and a recipient of the No

Question

J.J. Thomson, the discoverer of the electron and a recipient of the Nobel Price in physics, trained many physicists, among them seven Nobel Price winners, 32 fellows of the Royal Society of London, and 83 professors of physics. This shows that the skills needed for creative research can be taught and learned.

Which one of the following is an assumption on which the argument depends?

(A) J.J. Thomson was an internationally known physicist and scientists came from all over the world to work with him

(B) All the scientists trained by were renowned for their creative scientific research

(C) At least one of the eminent scientists trained by J.J. Thomson was not a creative researcher before coming to study with him

(D) Creative research in physics requires research habits not necessary for creative research in other fields

(E) Scientists who go on to be the most successful researchers often receive their scientific education in classes taught by renowned research scientists

Paul · Accepted Answer

definitely C
The premises are that creative research can be taught and learned, and that JJ. Thomson was able to train people to become fellows (32), Nobel Prize winners (7) and professors of physics (83). Therefore, it follows at least one of those people was not a creative researcher before studying with JJ. Thomson.

B does not work because it does not attack the premise that creative research can be taught and learned.

littlegirl · Answer

OA is C

Permise : JJ trained some scientists 
Conclusion : kills needed for creative research can be taught and learned
Unstated permise : At least one of scientists trained by J.J. Thomson was not a creative researcher before coming to study with him

gmat2015p · Answer

Can some one help validate the negation of answer choice (C)?

(C) At least one of the eminent scientists trained by J.J. Thomson was not a creative researcher before coming to study with him

in short Choice (C) says that

Some of the trainees were  not  a creative researcher prior to JJ's training.

Some can be between 1 to 100, both included.

Negation -

None of the trainees was  not  a creative researcher prior to JJ's training. 
(I am getting confused with this double negative - none and not)

adityadon · Answer

Treat it like this , 
None of the was a creative researcher prior to JJ's training. 
If this is true , this clearly breaks our conclusion- creative research skills can be taught.
Hence C is answer

MK1480 · Answer

Another Tip for my fellow friends:

in Assumption questions, whenever you see words like  "At least one"  or " At least some"  in answer choices... they are the MOST likely answers.!

Source: Power score CR Bible

Gomze · Answer

Can somebody explain what is the correct answer

sayantanc2k · Answer

OA has been added. C is the correct answer because of the following reason:

Conclusion: The skills needed for creative research can be taught and learned.

If ALL the scientists trained by J J Thompson were already creative researchers, then it cannot be confirmed that  because of the training , they became so. The assumption behind the above conclusion is that there has to be at least one scientist, who was not a creative researcher - the training made him so.

abhishekdadarwal2009 · Answer

A) J.J. Thomson was an internationally known physicist and scientists came from all over the world to work with him
 The choice provides additional information which is irrelevant and also out of scope since the nationality of the physist and scientists is not discussed.

(B) All the scientists trained by were renowned for their creative scientific research
 The argument does not provide the exact number of students JJ Thomson had and there fore this choice does not make a good choice.

(C) At least one of the eminent scientists trained by J.J. Thomson was not a creative researcher before coming to study with him.

The answer choice is correct since it strengthes the link between the teaching of JJ Thomson and that all the scientist were not creative and renowned before learning for JJ Thomson.

(D) Creative research in physics requires research habits not necessary for creative research in other fields
 Other fields is out of scope for this argument.

(E) Scientists who go on to be the most successful researchers often receive their scientific education in classes taught by renowned research scientists.
 May not be true therefore this choice does not make a good answer.

vijaisingh2001 · Answer

choice C

lets do the negation of the choice c and conclusion falls apart- 
(C) At least one of the eminent scientists trained by J.J. Thomson was not a creative researcher before coming to study with him

at least one ( means 1 to 100) or some on a scale of 0 to 100
negation of atleast one is - none or no one

so negation of choice c becomes 
None of the eminent scientists trained by J.J. Thomson was not a creative researcher before coming to study with him- double negative, so in affirmative the same sentence is 
some of the eminent scientists trained by J.J. Thomson were creative researchers before coming to study with him

now conclusion breaks down
choice E is close but if you look the words, it talks about the   most successful researchers

nks2611 · Answer

the answer must be C 
this is necessary info for the argument to holds true ,as there must be At least one of the eminent scientists,who had learned skills for creative work, trained by J.J. Thomson,

abhishekdadarwal2009 · Answer

J.J. Thomson, the discoverer of the electron and a recipient of the Nobel Prize in physics, trained many physicists, among them seven Nobel Prize winners, 32 fellows of the Royal Society of London, and 83 professors of physics. This shows that the skills needed for creative research can be taught and learned.

Which one of the following is an assumption on which the argument depends?

(A) J.J. Thomson was an internationally known physicist and scientists came from all over the world to work with him

(B) All the scientists trained by were renowned for their creative scientific research

(C) At least one of the eminent scientists trained by J.J. Thomson was not a creative researcher before coming to study with him

(D) Creative research in physics requires research habits not necessary for creative research in other fields

(E) Scientists who go on to be the most successful researchers often receive their scientific education in classes taught by renowned research scientists

The argument describes that the creativity can be taught and learned, for that to be true one must say that ebfore comming to learn from JJ Thompson students were not creative,
if they were creative already then it cannot be a fact that they learned it in the class of JJ Thompson,Option C provide the correct point as was done in prethinking.

rounakkedia172 · Answer

sayantanc2k Please verify whether my pre-thinking is correct (or not). Thanks

(Especially the point 2, I am not very sure about that). 1. What if they were never taught creative research – meaning what if they were creative before being taught by J.J. Thomson. This breaks the conclusion. 2. What if all the professors he taught were not creative - Meaning What if not all professors he taught were creative. This too breaks the conclusion.

Bunuel · Answer

Official Explanation

If the physicists trained by J. J. Thomson were creative researchers before studying under him, then clearly the argument would be specious. On the other hand, if none of the physicists were creative researchers before studying under Thomson, then the argument would be strong. However, the argument does not require this strong of a statement in order to be valid. All it needs is one person whose research skills profited from the tutelage of Thomson.  The answer is (C).

Many students have problems with this type of question. They read through the answer-choices and find no significant statements. They may pause at (C) but reject it—thinking that the argument would be deceptive if only one person out of 122 profited from the tutelage of Thomson. However, the missing premise doesn’t have to make the argument good, just valid.

ashutosh_73 · Answer

I had difficulty understanding (C) because of the double negatives. But below is logic( by Manhattan tutor)to interpret double negatives:

Quantifiers: 
ALL
MOST
SOME
NONE

Opposite:
 
ALL is NOT ALL
MOST is MOST ARE NOT
SOME is NONE
NONE is SOME

if you see a conditional relationship

A ---> B

B is required for A to occur. I negate that by saying that B is not required for A to occur. Or I could say it this way A can occur, even if B does not occur.

if I don't see quantification or a conditional relationship I just negate the verb

The car is driving fast, negated would be, The car is not driving fast.

Be careful not to double negate. Leave the subject alone and only negate once.

The car that is driving fast will get a ticket, negated would be, The car that is driving fast will not get a ticket. You would not want to say, the car that is not driving fast will not get a ticket.

So, here's my mental contortions on answer choice (C) to make it easier to read. If I had made a literal negation it would have been confusing.

At least one was not a creative researcher

became

None of them was not a creative researcher.

I got rid of the double negative and interpreted it as

All of them were creative researchers.

VerbalBot · Answer

Automated notice from GMAT Club VerbalBot: 

A member just gave Kudos to this thread, showing it’s still useful. I’ve bumped it to the top so more people can benefit. Feel free to add your own questions or solutions.

 This post was generated automatically.

J.J. Thomson, the discoverer of the electron and a recipient of the No

Prep Toolkit

Top 5 GMAT Debrief Videos

615 to 715 in 15 Days (Ria's Strategies)

More than Quant/Verbal Abilities: Speed vs. Accuracy

745 with Only Self-Prep and GMAT Club

From 555 to 765: 210-point Improvement

Perfect 805 Score Debrief by Julia

My Rewards

GMAT Critical Reasoning (CR) Questions

J.J. Thomson, the discoverer of the electron and a recipient of the No

Prep Toolkit

615 to 715 in 15 Days (Ria's Strategies)

More than Quant/Verbal Abilities: Speed vs. Accuracy

745 with Only Self-Prep and GMAT Club

From 555 to 765: 210-point Improvement

Perfect 805 Score Debrief by Julia

My Rewards