Relationship Advisor: When people ask me about causes of divorce, I

Question

Relationship Advisor: When people ask me about causes of divorce, I point to statistics. Surveys of couples have shown that those who live together before getting married are more likely to get divorced. Clearly, living together before marriage is one of the causes of divorce.

Which of the following, if true, is most damaging to the relationship advisor’s conclusion?

A. In comparison with more conservative minded people, more liberal minded people tend to be both more open to living together before marriage and more open to getting divorced.

B. In some countries the divorce rate has steadily decreased over the past 30 years.

C. Couples who live together before getting married have an opportunity to learn to work together as a team before they get married.

D. For preventing divorce, there is no substitute for having good communication skills.

E. For many couples who live together before getting married, marriage does not immediately lead to significant changes in their lifestyles.

Source: TTP Beta Testing

Nevernevergiveup · Accepted Answer

one minute 17 seconds

Data:  Surveys of couples have shown that those who live together before getting married are more likely to get divorced.  Opinion:  living together before marriage is one of the causes of divorce.

A coincidence need not be a cause for the result.

Which of the following, if true, is most  damaging  to the relationship advisor’s conclusion?

A. In comparison with more conservative minded people, more liberal minded people tend to be more open to living together before marriage and more open to getting divorced............................ so its the mindset that results in divorce and living together is just coincidence not reason.

B. In some countries the divorce rate has steadily decreased over the past 30 years............... not related the cause of divorce. OFS

C. Couples who live together before getting married have an opportunity to learn to work together as a team before they get married.............. we are not concerned about team work capability here. OFS

D. For preventing divorce, there is no substitute for having good communication skills................ we are finding causes not solutions OFS

E. For many couples who live together before getting married, marriage itself does not result in significant changes to their lifestyles.................... we have no info that No change in lifestyle results in divorce. Does not help.

Kurtosis · Answer

Question Type: Weaken

Main Point: Living together before marriage leads to divorce.
Assumption: There was no other factor involved.

A. In comparison with more conservative minded people, more liberal minded people tend to be more open to living together before marriage and more open to getting divorced. -  Correct. It was the mindset of the people that caused the divorce and living together before marriage was not exactly the main cause.

B. In some countries the divorce rate has steadily decreased over the past 30 years. -  Incorrect. Irrelevant.

C. Couples who live together before getting married have an opportunity to learn to work together as a team before they get married. -  Incorrect. Out of focus. This option talks about the events before marriage.

D. For preventing divorce, there is no substitute for having good communication skills. -  Incorrect. Irrelevant.

E. For many couples who live together before getting married, marriage itself does not result in significant changes to their lifestyles. -  Incorrect. May be it was not the change in lifestyle, but something else may have caused the divorce. Still the conclusion that living together before marriage is most likely to cause divorce is not weakened.

Answer: A

guptarahul · Answer

A. In comparison with more conservative minded people, more liberal minded people tend to be more open to living together before marriage and more open to getting divorced. Correct

B. In some countries the divorce rate has steadily decreased over the past 30 years not related the cause of divorce. Incorrect

C. Couples who live together before getting married have an opportunity to learn to work together as a team before they get married we are not concerned about team work capability here. Incorrect

D. For preventing divorce, there is no substitute for having good communication skills we are finding causes not solutions Incorrect

E. For many couples who live together before getting married, marriage itself does not result in significant changes to their lifestyles we have no information about number change in lifestyle results in divorce. Incorrect

MartyTargetTestPrep · Answer

The statistics on correct and incorrect choices on this question tend to highlight something: Rush and get crushed.

At the moment, the average time to correct answers to this question is 2:20, and the average time to incorrect answers is 1:18.

While spending on every CR question the full 1:48 available on average per question in the verbal section may not always make sense. spending 1:18 on a CR question that is rated 700 level may not make sense either.

You have to take the time to notice key details and logic, and be careful not to quickly pick the first choice that looks as if it makes sense.

sriamlan · Answer

If two things are happening one after another - that doesn't mean the prior is causing the later.

Mahmud6 · Answer

Advisor's conclusion is that living together before marriage is ONE of the causes of divorce, NOT the ONLY/MAIN cause of divorce. There may be thousands of causes of divorce; living together before marriage is one of them. So, to damage this conclusion, we need to show that living together before marriage is NOT the cause of divorce at all.

In OA, it seems to imply that individual's mindset is the cause of divorce. It may be. But, it does not mean that living together before marriage may NOT be the cause of divorce at all. So, how does it damage the Advisor's conclusion?

Need help to get out of it.

MartyTargetTestPrep · Answer

The OA to a Weaken question doesn't have to destroy the argument. It has just to weaken it.

In this question, the conclusion is that living together causes divorce.

All an answer has to do in order to be correct is to weaken that conclusion.

The OA weakens the conclusion by providing reason to believe that an alternate cause and effect relationship, one in which living together before marriage is correlated with divorce but does not cause divorce, is the one that actually underlies the observed pattern. In this alternate cause and effect relationship, the connection between living together and divorce is mindset, which underlies both living together before marriage and divorce.

By bringing up a fairly compelling reason to believe that living together before marriage is correlated with but does not cause divorce, the OA calls the conclusion of the argument into question, and in so doing satisfies the requirement necessary for qualifying it as a weakener.

Mahmud6 · Answer

"The OA to a Weaken question doesn't have to destroy the argument. It has just to weaken it." Very good saying.

Understood your point. +1 Kudos

chesstitans · Answer

there is a similar question with similar content, but both questions are drastically different from each other.
B and D are surely out of scope.
A gives an alternative cause.
E actually strengthens the conclusion, and C seems out of scope as well.

agrasan · Answer

Hi  MartyTargetTestPrep   ScottTargetTestPrep   GMATNinja   KarishmaB

I wanted your views to eliminate options C and E.
Let's describe events as 'living together before marriage' = X, and 'getting divorced' = Y

My thinking is below:
1. Option C is wrong because it is just a repetition of the fact given in the argument. What couples do together (like working as a team, shopping, etc.) while living together before marriage doesn't change the fact that X ---> Y.
2. Option E looks like a strengthener because it increases our confidence by saying "marriage  DOES NOT  immediately lead to significant changes in their lifestyles", this increases our belief that nothing came between X ----> Y.

Please let me know if my thinking is somewhere wrong.

shvm_sin7 · Answer

Hi Marty,
Wont it be D? Because it in a way says that to  not cause divorce the only way is   good communication skills. therefore we can infer that living together does not cause divorce?

Relationship Advisor: When people ask me about causes of divorce, I

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