There is a particular way of exercising the back and spine muscles. Th

Question

There is a particular way of exercising the back and spine muscles. The muscles on opposite sides of the spine have also to be equally exercised and made flexible as the spine itself as the movement on opposite sides of the spine is equally important as the movement of the spine.

Which one of the following is an assumption required by the argument?

Which one of the following is an assumption required by the argument?

A. Muscles on opposite sides of the spine that are equally well developed will be enough to keep the back in proper alignment.

B. Exercising the muscles on opposite sides of the spine unequally tends to lead to unbalanced muscle development.

C. Provided that one exercises the muscles on opposite sides of the spine equally, one will have a generally healthy back.

D. If the muscles on opposite sides of the spine are exercised unequally, one's back will be irreparably damaged.

E. One should exercise daily to ensure that the muscles on opposite sides of the spine keep the back in proper alignment.

winterschool · Answer

There is a particular way of exercising the back and spine muscles. The muscles on opposite sides of the spine have also to be equally exercised and made flexible as the spine itself as the movement on opposite sides of the spine is equally important as the movement of the spine.

Which one of the following is an assumption required by the argument?

Which one of the following is an assumption required by the argument?

A. Muscles on opposite sides of the spine that are equally well developed will be enough to keep the back in proper alignment.  Incorrect

additional info, cant be an assumption

B.  Exercising the muscles on opposite sides of the spine unequally tends to lead to unbalanced muscle development.   Correct

that is why equally movement of the spine is important

C. Provided that one exercises the muscles on opposite sides of the spine equally, one will have a generally healthy back.  Incorrect

additional info

D. If the muscles on opposite sides of the spine are exercised unequally, one's back will be irreparably damaged.  Incorrect

dont know it can cause irreparably damaged

E. One should exercise daily to ensure that the muscles on opposite sides of the spine keep the back in proper alignment.  Incorrect

suggestion, cant be an assumption

Hariharan1 · Answer

I Am confused between B and C. Both speak about unequal exercise. please help

PyjamaScientist · Answer

Here, Option B is the correct answer. Option C is a trap answer. A common type of answer type that you will often see in CR questions.
 
The stimulus emphasis exercising the opposite side of the spine. It conveys that the opp. side is as important as the spine.
 
If you take opposite of what's mentioned here, "Exercising the muscles on opp. sides unequally do not tend to unbalanced muscle development. If this was the case then author's argument would fail. Hence, this has to be the author's assumption while making the conclusion.
 
Whereas, if you take the opposite of this statement, it would be, "If one exercises the muscles on the opp. sides of the spine equally then one will not have a healthy back". This does not make my author's conclusion weak. Because say, what if that person has a spinal disease which makes his/her spine unhealthy despite exercising equally on both sides? So, this does not have to be my author's assumption while making the conclusion.

I hope this helps.

Hariharan1 · Answer

I was confused between B and C.
Even negation of C makes the conclusion invalid.
So, how do I proceed so that I don't get trapped in selecting the wrong choice.
Thanks

PyjamaScientist · Answer

Hariharan, if you read my answer above, you will see how negation of correct answer choice completely renders the conclusion invalid, or breaks the conclusion, whereas negation of the incorrect does not necessarily break the conclusion. Mind you it is not a weaken type question. Correct answer choice has to completely support the conclusion for it to be correct.

You mentioned negation of option C also breaks the conclusion. Can you please show your reasoning behind it so that I can help you identify the flaw in your reasoning?

abhola · Answer

What is the conclusion here in this sentence? Due to the complex nature of the passage and lack of any conclusion or premise markers, it was very hard to pin point.

Can someone help in understanding what are the premises here and what's the conclusion? Please provide your reasoning behind the classification.

Thanks.

Posted from my mobile device

PyjamaScientist · Answer

theeliteguy 
 There is a particular way of exercising the back and spine muscles. The muscles on opposite sides of the spine have also to be equally exercised and made flexible as the spine itself as the movement on opposite sides of the spine is equally important as the movement of the spine. 
  Premise:   
 1.    There is a particular way of exercising the back and spine muscles.  
 2.    Movement on opposite sides of the spine is equally important as the movement of the spine.  
  Conclusion:  
 1.    The muscles on opposite sides of the spine have also to be equally exercised and made flexible as the spine itself.  
  Takeaway  
The easy way to identify a premise and conclusion is to see what causes what. If A causes B. Then A is the premise. B is the conclusion. Another way round- If A is caused by B. Then A is the conclusion and B is the premise.
Eg.   Bathing helps in getting rid of dirt and sweat from the body. Strenuous activities lead to sweat accumulation.     Hence, one should bath after a extensive soccer match.   Here, the first and the second sentences act as premises for the conclusion (last sentence). Understanding this simple relationship between the two will help you identify the premise from the conclusion.

unraveled · Answer

This is not a typical premise and conclusion question. The passage just elaborates 'a particular way of exercising the back and spine muscles'. 
But if you try to identify a conclusion, then second(big) sentence has one.

Consider the passage below:

There is a particular way of exercising the back and spine muscles. The muscles on opposite sides of the spine have also to be equally exercised and made flexible as the spine itself as the movement on opposite sides of the spine is equally important as the movement of the spine.

Which one of the following is an assumption required by the argument?

A - muscles on opposite sides of the spine have also to be equally exercised and made flexible as the spine itself
B - movement on opposite sides of the spine is equally important as the movement of the spine

The latter part comes after 'as', hence it the reasoning behind what was said earlier. Therefore, earlier part is some sort of conclusion. Replace 'as' with 'because' for better understanding.

Which one of the following is an assumption required by the argument?

A. Muscles on opposite sides of the spine that are  equally well developed  will be  enough  to keep the back in proper alignment. -  WRONG. 'enough' is undefined here. It puts a limit, as in it tries to quantify, which we can't infer from the passage. Thus, it can't be an assumption.
 
B.  Exercising  the muscles on opposite sides of the spine  unequally  tends to  lead to unbalanced  muscle development. -  CORRECT. This just says what was mentioned in the passage in a negation manner. Only concern is the 'muscles development' which looks additional if one tries to be picky.

C. Provided that one exercises the muscles on opposite sides of the spine equally, one will have a  generally  healthy back. -  WRONG. A generalisation is not necessary. Again, if you are picky, you may think of why 'healthy' is a possibility as passage doesn't mention anything about healthiness.

D. If the muscles on opposite sides of the spine are exercised unequally, one's back will be  irreparably damaged . -  WRONG. Damage is not discussed. More importantly 'irreparably' is extreme to say.

E. One should exercise  daily  to ensure that the muscles on opposite sides of the spine keep the back in proper alignment. -  WRONG. The word 'daily' ruins the option. We can't be sure if daily exercising is required as per the argument.

sssanskaar · Answer

Although B is the only correct choice for this argument, I highly doubt that this is an assumption-based question. This is more like an inference-based question.

Having said that, we can safely pick B out of every other choice.

nivi2084 · Answer

GMATNinja   Veritas   egmat

Please help rightly select between B & D

I had selected D, but if D is talking about "irreparably damaged" which is not given in the passage , similarly B also has the outside information "'muscles development" which is also not given in the passage

Inspite of getting down to 2 options , I selected the incorrect one
Kindly help get more clarity on this

sssanskaar · Answer

There is a particular way of exercising the back and spine muscles. The muscles on opposite sides of the spine have also to be equally exercised and made flexible as the spine itself as the movement on opposite sides of the spine is equally important as the movement of the spine.

Which one of the following is an assumption required by the argument?

B. Exercising the muscles on opposite sides of the spine unequally tends to lead to unbalanced muscle development. Kindly note the underlined portion in the passage stem. If we are talking about "muscles" and "exercise", the "development" or "muscle development" discussion is in the scope of the argument. Take it as saying for example - A father gives equal pocket money to both of his sons. We can then say that if the father had given an unequal amount of pocket money to his sons, their expenditures would have been "unbalanced" or "not the same". That's 100% correct. Although expenditure is not explicitly mentioned in the argument, it is in the scope of the discussion. D. If the muscles on opposite sides of the spine are exercised unequally, one's back will be irreparably damaged . Now, this is a tricky part. Although "irreparable damage" to a muscle can be technically possible, but are you absolutely sure that it will happen? "irreparably" means non-repairable. Even doctors or the latest medical technologies won't be helpful in healing the damage. Now, this part is completely out of the scope of the passage, because it depends on the capabilities of doctors/technologies/medical professionals etc, and not on JUST the "exercise" and the "muscle" as discussed in the passage. To sum up, yes you are thinking in the right direction. But 700 level GMAT/LSAT CRs options are worded in such a tricky way that you will have to pay attention to each and every single word/modifier that can put a seemingly correct option out of the scope. Hope it helped you even a little bit

iridescent995 · Answer

NO ONE has answered the basic question.

Where in the passage, do we talk about   MUSCLE DEVELOPMENT   mentioned in B??

Please post an official explanation.

VerbalBot · Answer

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There is a particular way of exercising the back and spine muscles. Th

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There is a particular way of exercising the back and spine muscles. Th

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