One tank in a fish-farming system has been contaminated by a rapidly

Question

One tank in a fish-farming system has been contaminated by a rapidly reproducing species of algae that kills fish by drastically reducing water circulation. If the owners of the fish farm do nothing to rid the tank of these algae, all of the fish in the system will die.

Which of the following, if true, would most damage the conclusion above?

A. The species of fish in the tank produces waste containing bacteria that will destroy the algae before the algae reach the other tanks.
 
B. Some of the algae in the contaminated tank will die before reproducing.
 
C. The species of algae in the tank is a favorite food of Atlantic salmon.
 
D. There is no effective method of ridding the contaminated tank of algae.
 
E. All species of algae convert carbon dioxide to oxygen, a function vital to fish life.

suchithra · Answer

Premise : One tank in a system is contaminated by algae. Conclusion : All the fishes in the system (that is in all tanks) will die.

Option A weakens the best. Before the contamination spread to other tanks, Fish waste will kill the algae.

Shrey9 · Answer

It's a call between A and E

A is the right answer.
E is a trap, as it’s stating a general thing, but as we know... too much of anything can be harmful, so A is a good alternative to stick with than E - which isn’t an alternative, but rather says that plan is of no use; one shouldn’t ever mark this kind of choice as a right answer on CR weaken.

Aviral1995 · Answer

I think E can be eliminated because although All species of algae convert carbon dioxide to oxygen, a function vital to fish life , but the original problem is not yet solved due to which fish in the system may die

siddharthkapoor · Answer

I admire the subtlety of option D, even though it's wrong.

Option D says that there is no effective method of ridding the contaminated tank of algae, so one can fall for this option thinking that there's nothing that the owners of the fish farm can do to save the fish-farming system, thus weakening the argument that owners must take a step to get rid of algae. However, our concern is with the spread of algae in the fish-tank system, and Option D specifically says that there is no effective method of ridding the contaminated tank of algae. It does not give any information about the spread of the algae to the other parts of the system.

MS26 · Answer

If you miss the details in the premise chances are high that you can go wrong , one tank and fishing system and the logic for A is coming from the above details, while is a Trap as written in premise survival of fish water circulation is a necessary requirement

One tank in a fish-farming system has been contaminated by a rapidly

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

One tank in a fish-farming system has been contaminated by a rapidly

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