The chairperson of Acme Corporation has decided to move the company fr

Question

The chairperson of Acme Corporation has decided to move the company from its current location in Milltown to Ocean View. Most Acme employees cannot afford housing within a 30-minute commute of Ocean View. So once the company has moved, most Acme employees will have a commute of more than 30 minutes.

The argument requires assuming which one of the following?

(A) All Acme employees can afford housing within a 30-minute commute of Milltown.
(B) The chairperson of Acme has good fmancial reasons for wanting to move the company to Ocean View.
(C) None of Acme's employees except the chairperson are in favor of moving the company to Ocean View.
(D) Currently, most Acme employees have a commute of less than 30 minutes.
(E) Acme's move to Ocean View will not be accompanied by a significant pay raise for Acme employees.

Source: LSAT

broall · Answer

The problem of this question is this fact: "Most Acme employees cannot afford housing within a 30-minute commute of Ocean View". Then the author concludes that "most Acme employees will have a commute of more than 30 minutes". Why can't Acme employees stay within Ocean View so they could have a commute of less than 30 mins? Because they "cannot afford housing" and they don't get allowance from the company. Hence, OA is E.

Other choices are irrelevant to the argument.

Abhishek009 · Answer

(A) We do not have any information about the present housing status of the employees.
(B) Financial reasons for shifting to new location is outside the scope of the discussion.
(C) Agreement of the chairman in favour / against shifting to new location is out of perview of the present context and out of scope.
(D) Present housing status of the employees is out of scope we are interested in knowing about their location in future after shifting.

Now, try to negate (E) Acme's move to Ocean View  will be accompanied by a significant pay raise  for Acme employees.

If there is a pay rise the employees can get accommodation near the proposed location, thus the entire conclusion shatters, this is our Answer...

ravigupta2912 · Answer

Pre-thinking 
Most employees will continue post the move i.e. no local hires OR
No compensation for the move

Lets look at the answer choices now:-

(A) All Acme employees can afford housing within a 30-minute commute of Milltown.

We are not concerned with commute within 30 mins of Milltown. Incorrect.

(B) The chairperson of Acme has good fmancial reasons for wanting to move the company to Ocean View.

We are not concerned with the reasoning for the move. Eliminated. Even if financial reasons aren't good (negation), it won't affect our conclusion.

(C) None of Acme's employees except the chairperson are in favor of moving the company to Ocean View.

Eliminated. Doesn't impact the conclusion of employees having commute of 30 mins or lower / higher.

(D) Currently, most Acme employees have a commute of less than 30 minutes.

Eliminated. We aren't concerned with the current compute. Even if current commute is more than 30 minutes, it doesn't impact the conclusion in any manner.

(E) Acme's move to Ocean View will not be accompanied by a significant pay raise for Acme employees.

Correct choice. Negating this would mean "will be accompanied by a significant pay raise" and therefore, suddenly some employees may find housing within 30 mins to be affordable and hence their commutes being within the 30 min mark. This directly affects the conclusion. Winner!

Mizar18 · Answer

E) is the only possible answer

You do not need to know anything about the current situation (Milltown location), so that is why (D) is out.

Kanika3agg · Answer

Conclusion - Once the company has moved, Most Acme employees will have a commute of more than 30 minutes. 
Premise - People cant afford the housing in 30 minute commute of the Ocean View
Pre- Thinking - What if there is another way of people staying in Ocean view? Maybe company will provide some accomodation facilities to the employees for staying in Ocean view.

the closest sentence to this assumption was option E.

unraveled · Answer

The chairperson of Acme Corporation has decided to move the company from its current location in Milltown to Ocean View. Most Acme employees cannot afford housing within a 30-minute commute of Ocean View. So once the company has moved, most Acme employees will have a commute of more than 30 minutes.

The argument requires assuming which one of the following?

(A)  All Acme employees can afford housing  within a 30-minute commute of  Milltown . - WRONG. What presently is the case we are not sure about. Also, this does not affect the conclusion for why most would commute more than 30 minutes.   
(B) The chairperson of Acme  has good fmancial reasons for wanting to move  the company to Ocean View. - WRONG. May be but does not affect the conclusion just like A does not.
(C)  None of Acme's employees except the chairperson are in favor of moving  the company to Ocean View. - WRONG. Again like B this too makes the same mistake. 
(D) Currently, most Acme employees have a commute of less than 30 minutes. - WRONG. Trap but currently what is the status we are not sure. Like in A here also, presently what is the case we can't say.
(E) Acme's move to Ocean View will not be accompanied by a significant pay raise for Acme employees. - CORRECT. May not be the best but POE helps. However, if there had been a pay rise then most could afford Ocean view. But again it requires further assumption as in whether the commute would be less than 30 minutes.

Answer E.

shubh_2602 · Answer

Hello, Kindly help on this.. 
1) While negating option E) - employees will get significant pay raise, but how does it show that they will be able to get a house within 30 min commutation ? We don't know whether they are travelling by personal/public transport and it looks Out of scope a bit.

2) While negating option D) - most employees will have more than 30 min commutation, it also shatters the Conclusion that "Now, most employees will have a 30+ min of commutation."

What am i missing ?

unraveled · Answer

E can be chosen simply by doing POE. In the passage the conclusion is about the OC and not MT. So, once the compnay moves there the current time taken for commuting to office in MT is irrelevant. We need to taken of two things - affordability and commuting within 30 minutes. Both are related. If not so the case then most Acme employees will have a commute of more than 30 minutes. See below.

The chairperson of Acme Corporation has decided to move the company from its current location in Milltown to Ocean View. Most Acme employees cannot  afford housing  within a  30-minute commute of Ocean View . So once the company has moved, most Acme employees will have a commute of more than 30 minutes.

(D) Currently, most Acme employees have a commute of less than 30 minutes. - WRONG. Currently what is the status we are not sure. 
(E) Acme's move to Ocean View will not be accompanied by a significant pay raise for Acme employees. - CORRECT. May not be the best but POE helps. However, if there had been a pay rise then most could afford Ocean view. But again it requires further assumption as in whether the commute would be less than 30 minutes.

So, while you do good in E, in D you make a mistake on basics. It has to in line to the conclusion which is what you miss to do in D.

HTHs.

anirchat · Answer

D could have been an option to  weaken  the argument. It is nt an assumption needed to support the argument. This is why  D  can be eliminated.

The chairperson of Acme Corporation has decided to move the company fr

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

The chairperson of Acme Corporation has decided to move the company fr

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