Essayist: Some researchers criticize British governmental security age

Question

Essayist:  Some researchers criticize British governmental security agencies for not releasing enough information about sightings of unidentified flying objects (UFOs) made by these military and intelligence agencies. Requests for information by civilian researchers are brushed aside. This leads one to suspect that there have been spacecraft sighted near Earth that are extraterrestrial in origin.

Which one of the following, if true, would most strengthen the essayist’s argument?

(A) The British government is generally not forthcoming with secure information.

(B) The British government would withhold information pertaining to UFOs only if it were established that they were from other planets.

(C) The British government would deny the requests by civilian researchers to have access to the data only if this government had something to hide.

(D) The British government is less trusting of civilian researchers than it is of military researchers.

(E) The British government has always attempted to deny the existence of UFOs.

ddhapte · Answer

IMO B

As B mentions intension of the government behind hiding the information

ravigupta2912 · Answer

(A) The British government is generally not forthcoming with secure information. -- not relevant to argument which is about not sharing info because british govt knows that these UFOs are extraterrestrial

(B) The British government would withhold information pertaining to UFOs only if it were established that they were from other planets. -- Correct. Strengthens the argument.

(C) The British government would deny the requests by civilian researchers to have access to the data only if this government had something to hide. -- Even if assumed, the "something to hide" could mean something other than "extraterrestrial" and hence, this may not necessarily strengthen. Eliminate.

(D) The British government is less trusting of civilian researchers than it is of military researchers. -- It weakens the argument by providing another reason (less trusting) instead of the reason cited in the argument (sth to hide)

(E) The British government has always attempted to deny the existence of UFOs. -- Close contender. Frankly I don't know how to reject this. But if you review E and B together, B is just better and stronger. This is like shell game choice. Eliminate.

Iotaa · Answer

GMATNinja

Please help between options B & C. C seems perfect to qualify as a correct answer

Sajjad1994 · Answer

Explanation

Premise:  Some researchers criticize the government for not releasing UFO info + info requests are brushed aside
 Conclusion:  Extraterrestrial UFOs have been sighted

The argument jumps from claiming info requests for UFOs are denied to concluding the UFOs are in fact extraterrestrial. (They could be terrestrial; maybe the government is building its own spaceships?). To strengthen this argument, I need a choice that bridges this gap; something that is along the lines of: if the requests are ignored, then the UFOs are definitely alien. This is answer choice (B): government would withhold info about UFOs only if the UFOs were from other planets.

(A)  weakens -- if the government generally doesn't give access to any secure information then this would be an alternative reason for the government not allowing access to information about UFOs; it is because the information is secure and not because the UFOs are alien.

(C)  out of scope -- I initially chose this one, but on a second read I realized this choice has nothing to do with the conclusion.

(D)  out of scope -- this comparison between researchers does not relate to the argument

(E)  out of scope -- the argument is not about what the government has always done with UFOs since the stimulus already clearly states that researchers have criticized the government for not releasing enough info.

Answer: B

GMATNinja · Answer

In the passage, we learn that requests for information about UFOs are brushed aside by British government agencies.

To the author, this suggests that "there have been spacecraft sighted near Earth that are extraterrestrial in origin."

Which answer choice strengthens the author's argument that the UFOs are extraterrestrial in origin?
 
(B) tells us that the British government would ONLY withhold info about UFOs if the UFOs were from other planets -- or, in other words, if they were extraterrestrial.

This massively strengthens the argument, because it rules out any OTHER reason for the government to withhold the information. If the government is indeed withholding this information, then the UFOs  must  be extraterrestrial in origin.

(B) hugely strengthens the argument, so keep (B). 
 
This is pretty broad. What could the government be hiding? Sure, it could be hiding the fact that UFOs are extraterrestrial in origin, but it could alternatively be hiding a whole bunch of different things. Maybe it's hiding the fact that the military has been testing new aircraft, or that Britain has been invaded by a neighboring country, etc.

(C) doesn't specifically support the suspicion that UFOs are extraterrestrial in nature, while (B) does strengthen this suspicion. Because we're looking for the option that  "most"  strengthens the author's argument, we can eliminate (C) and choose (B).

I hope that helps!

unraveled · Answer

There have been unquestionable explanations above but I would like to add to GMATNinja's point w.r.t. C. Misjudged in this one, chose C instead B. 
It was between B and C.

In C the point about hiding surely raises suspicion but is it proven that it(suspicion) is about UFO only. For that to happen we need to make an assumption which is where we are making a mistake. Making an assumption would make each of the choices an answer, so it is wrong to make.

Answer B.

VerbalBot · Answer

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Essayist: Some researchers criticize British governmental security age

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Essayist: Some researchers criticize British governmental security age

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