Scientists have genetically modified three pigs so that they are thoro

Question

Scientists have genetically modified three pigs so that they are thoroughly florescent both in daylight and in darkness. Pigs have been modified in this fashion before, but the scientists who have created the most recent set observe that their technique has improved the odds of successfully modifying a specific embryo and making the adult pig completely florescent. The presence of the green protein will allow genetically modified cells to be tracked if they were transplanted into a human. This will immediately speed scientists' understanding of genetic research for the purpose of improving human health.
Which of the following would be most useful to determine in evaluating the claim above?

Which of the following would be most useful to determine in evaluating the claim above?

A. What human diseases the scientists intend to cure with the research enabled by the florescent pig cells

B. Whether there is any health risk to the pigs who are rendered florescent

C. How quickly the process of rendering pigs florescent can be perfected

D. Whether the time saved by being able to detect florescent cells might be offset by the time taken to produce florescent pigs at the improved odds

E. How the scientists achieved better results in their most recent technique of creating florescence in the pigs

daagh · Accepted Answer

Explanation from GMAT FREE, the source

Reading the question: we can begin once again with the question stem, as we did for Drivers Over 30. We don't have to start with the stem on every question, but if it feels counterintuitive to start with the stem first, let's exercise that muscle.

Creating a filter: the stem tells us to choose something that is "useful" to evaluate the argument. Quite often, as we'll discuss more on later questions, the correct answer will be not only "useful," but essential to the argument. (This is proof by stronger terms, as mentioned in the Critical Reasoning Strategy.) What's essential to the argument? The language of the argument gets passionate with the phrase "immediately speed understanding." Working back from that phrase, what immediately speeds understanding? The green pig technology makes traceable cells and we are going to transplant those into a human. That's the key connection: 1) the traceable cells and 2) the immediate speeding of understanding. With that connection mind, we can now turn to the answer choices. We'll see, for starters, what answer choices have anything to do with 1) the traceable cells and 2) the immediate speeding of understanding. Since we are "filtering" out the irrelevant answer choices, we can think of this as a basic relevance filter.

Applying the filter: Choice (A) doesn't pass the filter. Choice (B) is definitely irrelevant to the argument. Skipping down, so is (E). They have no bearing on how the green piggery will help genetic research. Choices (C) and (D), interestingly, both involve time, which pertains to the word "immediately" in the prompt.

Logical proof: we can analyze both (C) and (D) by extreme cases; this is step 2 of the Critical Reasoning Strategy presented at the beginning of the book. First, (C). We imagine the technique takes a long time to be perfected--or it's never perfected. That might not matter, if the new technique is already a big improvement. So we're focused on (D). Choice (D) says, if the current pig process churns out completely green pigs only occasionally, we can't benefit much from them. Maybe the new process is much better, but not that good. That would be highly relevant to the argument. The correct answer is (D).

saikiransomala · Answer

Hi,

The argument focuses on connecting the result of successful creation of genetically modified pigs with improved health outcomes in human beings.

So with our pre-thinking

Option A - Attractive choice but knowing the diseases will not help us evaluate the argument
Option B - Because the argument mentions about improvement in health, this choice seems to be the ideal one
Option C - Perfection is OFS
Option D - Time saved is OFS 
Option E - Process involved in achieving the success is OFS

So final choice is Option B.

Guilio · Answer

Correct me if I am wrong, but the conclusion goes "The presence of the green protein will allow genetically modified cells to be tracked if they were transplanted into a human." The next sentence is another fact. We should be focused on the conclusion when evaluating the argument.

A - totally irrelevant 
B - this is useful. If there is any health risk to the pigs in question, then those cells might never find a way to the human body in the first place and will therefore never be tracked at all. 
C - irrelevant 
D - irrelevant
E - also irrelevant

All other choices are out of scope and this makes the question fairly simple.

Hope it helps,
Jay

daagh · Answer

B talks about health of pigs. The conclusion talks about human health.How far is B relevant to the conclusion?

Guilio · Answer

Wow wait a second, I am reading the argument again. I thought first that people will actually consume those genetically modified three pigs, lol.

This is actually a separate issue in which case A) is better. "What human diseases the scientists intend to cure with the research enabled by the florescent pig cells" - if the scientists don't intend to cure diseases which could be prevented by knowing more about the modified cells, then this will not speed scientists' understanding of genetic research and will therefore not improve human health.

How am I doing?

Guilio · Answer

Wow.

Thank you daagh for the detailed explanation.

mvictor · Answer

oh damn, narrowed down to B and D. D is worded in a very complex way, which kind of confused me. Selected B because I thought that if the green protein which results in being fluorescent possess health risks to pigs, it might be the case that it possess risks for human health as well..

chesstitans · Answer

this question is from gmatfree, a reliable source. The key word here is "speed up", then D directly connects with the argument b/c of "time saved by..."

pkm9995 · Answer

Conclusion: This genetic technology will immediately speed scientists' understanding of genetic research for the purpose of improving human health

A.What human diseases the scientists intend to cure with the research enabled by the florescent pig cells- Out of scope

B.Whether there is any health risk to the pigs who are rendered florescent-out of scope- We are talking about humans not pigs

C.How quickly the process of rendering pigs florescent can be perfected- out of scope

D.Whether the time saved by being able to detect florescent cells might be offset by the time taken to produce florescent pigs at the improved odds-  This is the only option which makes some sense

E.How the scientists achieved better results in their most recent technique of creating florescence in the pigs- out of scope

GMATBusters · Answer

daagh

Do you think that  gmatfree.com is a good source to practice questions?

daagh · Answer

With very little exposure, I cannot take a stand. However, I found their critical reasoning to be more impressive.

RiyaJ0032 · Answer

can some one explain why is (D) correct?

napolean92728 
 karishma

Scientists have genetically modified three pigs so that they are thoro

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GMAT Critical Reasoning (CR) Questions

Scientists have genetically modified three pigs so that they are thoro

Prep Toolkit

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

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My Rewards