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805+ (Hard)|   Weaken|      
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Paul
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The village is overrun by poisonous snakes. The mayor argues that payi 04 Apr 2004, 09:23
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C
Be sure to select an answer first to save it in the Error Log before revealing the correct answer (OA)!

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95% (hard)

Question Stats:

30% (01:39) correct 70% (01:40) wrong based on 441 sessions

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The village is overrun by poisonous snakes. The mayor argues that paying a 10$ bounty for each dead snakes turned in by a villager will result in riddling the village of snakes

Which of the following does NOT weaken the mayor's argument?

A) the bounty ensures that breeding the snakes is in the economic interest of the villagers
B) village taxes will triple if the mayor's proposal is implemented
C) the villagers do not trust the mayor
D) the snakes control the rat population, so the villagers will not kill the snakes
E) a drug company pays villagers 15$ for each live snake delivered to it
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C
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Paul
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The village is overrun by poisonous snakes. The mayor argues that payi 04 Apr 2004, 20:11
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OA is C. Nice one Kpadma.
E is wrong but we cannot relate it to A because each choices should be seen as independent clauses.
E can be negated in the sense that if a company already has a system whereby they pay 15$ to villagers to bring them back snake but yet, the city is still overrun by snakes as the opening sentence implies, then what is the use of paying less to get rid of snakes?
B can also be negated. If village taxes are to triple, then will villagers accept the given plan? Will that not weaken the argument in the sense that the plan is then futile? :stupid
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The village is overrun by poisonous snakes. The mayor argues that payi 23 Aug 2010, 12:03
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Discussed at this thread:
cr-poisonous-snakes-5350.html

The village is overrun by poisonous snakes. The mayor argues that paying a 10$ bounty for each dead snakes turned in by a villager will result in riddling the village of snakes

Which of the following does NOT weaken the mayor's argument?
A) the bounty ensures that breeding the snakes is in the economic interest of the villagers
B) village taxes will triple if the mayor's proposal is implemented
C) the villagers do not trust the mayor
D) the snakes control the rat population, so the villagers will not kill the snakes
E) a drug company pays villagers 15$ for each live snake delivered to it

Can someone explain this better? Kinda lost :oops:
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The village is overrun by poisonous snakes. The mayor argues that payi 23 Aug 2010, 18:01
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rohitgoel15
Discussed at this thread:
cr-poisonous-snakes-5350.html

The village is overrun by poisonous snakes. The mayor argues that paying a 10$ bounty for each dead snakes turned in by a villager will result in riddling the village of snakes

Which of the following does NOT weaken the mayor's argument?
A) the bounty ensures that breeding the snakes is in the economic interest of the villagers
B) village taxes will triple if the mayor's proposal is implemented
C) the villagers do not trust the mayor : No effect on the conclusion so does not Weaken
D) the snakes control the rat population, so the villagers will not kill the snakes
E) a drug company pays villagers 15$ for each live snake delivered to it

Can someone explain this better? Kinda lost :oops:
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All 4 choices except C , weaken the argument because of highlighted text. C is neither talking of any economic criteria nor talking of dead snakes.
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The village is overrun by poisonous snakes. The mayor argues that payi 04 Sep 2010, 01:48
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Was caught between B and C...

B) village taxes will triple if the mayor's proposal is implemented ==> Why would the villagers implement the plan if they know that they will later be burdened by taxes, which will be another problem for them. Hence there are chances that the Mayor's plan might fail.

C) the villagers do not trust the mayor ==> The only option left. Hence the answer.
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The village is overrun by poisonous snakes. The mayor argues that payi 30 Apr 2016, 09:25
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rohitgoel15
Discussed at this thread:
cr-poisonous-snakes-5350.html

The village is overrun by poisonous snakes. The mayor argues that paying a 10$ bounty for each dead snakes turned in by a villager will result in riddling the village of snakes

Which of the following does NOT weaken the mayor's argument?

A) the bounty ensures that breeding the snakes is in the economic interest of the villagers
B) village taxes will triple if the mayor's proposal is implemented
C) the villagers do not trust the mayor
D) the snakes control the rat population, so the villagers will not kill the snakes
E) a drug company pays villagers 15$ for each live snake delivered to it

Can someone explain this better? Kinda lost :oops:
Show more


A. If snake breeding is in the economic interest of the villagers they will not kill it , hence this will weaken the mayors arguement.

B. Yes it can be possible, that tax might increase to support the " Snake Kill Programme " . Now lets think logically,

The problem is snakes , if villagers can get rid of it at their own expenses what is the use. They are killing the poisonous snakes and paying more tax , how can it go side by side... ??

Rather the villagers may opt not to receive any reward ad kill the snakes themselves, without the involvement of mayor and additional tax.

C. Irrelevant to the discussion.

D. If snakes help keeping rat population under control they will not kill the snakes and the mayors plan will not be successful.

E. If the drug company pays $ 15 the villagers will bring the dead snakes to the Drug company for better rewards and the mayors plan won't be successful....


(C) is irrelevant to the discussion , and in this case doesn't weaken the mayors plan, hence this is our answer..
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The village is overrun by poisonous snakes. The mayor argues that payi 23 May 2019, 23:28
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GMATNinja VeritasKarishma

Can you please shed ur thoughts here...Doesn't C weaken the basic plan of the mayor...
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The village is overrun by poisonous snakes. The mayor argues that payi 24 May 2019, 04:06
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Debashis Roy
GMATNinja VeritasKarishma

Can you please shed ur thoughts here...Doesn't C weaken the basic plan of the mayor...
Show more

(C) doesn't weaken the plan, but then neither does (B).

The village is overrun by poisonous snakes.

Mayor's Plan:
If we pay $10 for each dead snake that a villager brings in, the village will get rid of snakes.

Note that the mayor's plan is not to "announce" that $10 will be given. He is saying "pay $10". Whether villagers trust the mayor or not is irrelevant. If each villager who brings in a dead snake is given $10, trust on the mayor does not matter. The plan should be successful.

B) village taxes will triple if the mayor's proposal is implemented
Whether the plan will be successful or not depends on what happens after the plan is implemented.
Once the mayor has implemented the plan, the people can either catch snakes and get $10 making his plan successful or they can refuse to do so which leads to failure of his plan. If the taxes do increase, there is nothin that people can do. They might as well earn $10 for each snake and make up the lost money. It is unlikely that they will all decide to boycott the plan to bring the village back o original state.

If faced with this question, I will go for (C) but I don't like this question much.
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The village is overrun by poisonous snakes. The mayor argues that payi 11 Feb 2026, 16:41
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