What to expect on the gmat 4 ppsx

Which of the following is the most serious weakness of this argument?

a. It assumes that it is wrong to break tradition.

b. It assumes that women should not have an equal opportunity.

c. It assumes that including women would mean that everyone would have to be included without

restriction.

d. It does not acknowledge that men are included in some women’s tournaments.

e. It does not explain why the tournament is such a renowned event.

This argument has many problems, including the fact that in general, it does not offer any truly logical

reasons to support its conclusion. Of the options given, the best choice is c. This assumption is a slippery slope

fallacy. Including women would not mean anyone could enter the tournament. This slippery slope is used as

a sort of scare tactic to frighten off support for including women in the tournament.

GMAT questions will often ask you to determine what evidence strengthens or weakens an argument

or what information would help you better evaluate an argument. Now that you have reviewed the elements

of evaluating arguments, take another look at this question from the pretest:

13. DNA evidence has increasingly been used in court to prove guilt and to exonerate the innocent.

Because so many convicted felons have been cleared by DNA evidence, all cases in which someone was

convicted largely on circumstantial evidence should be called into question and reviewed.

Which of the following, if true, would most strengthen this argument?

a. One in three convictions today rests largely on DNA evidence.

b. DNA evidence is admissible even after the statute of limitations has expired.

c. Of every ten cases in which DNA evidence becomes available post-conviction, five convictions are

overturned.

d. DNA evidence is 99.8% accurate.

e. DNA evidence is very difficult to falsify or tamper with.

To answer this question, you need to evaluate each of the options. The key question is which choice is

the most relevant to the argument. As discussed earlier in this chapter, this is a controversial conclusion, so

it should be backed by very strong evidence. Which of these claims provides the best support for the

argument?

The best choice is c. The fact that would most strengthen this argument is the percentage of cases in

which DNA evidence overturned prior convictions. If a full half of all cases resulted in erroneous convictions

that were later cleared by DNA evidence, then that should certainly draw other convictions into doubt. That

means that potentially half of all felons have been wrongly convicted. The fact that one in three of today’s con￾victions rest on DNA evidence has no bearing on prior convictions, so choice a is irrelevant. Similarly, the

admissibility of DNA evidence (choice b) has no bearing on the quality of prior convictions; it is also irrel￾evant. That DNA evidence is accurate (choice d) and difficult to tamper with (choice e) strengthens the argu￾ment for the use of DNA evidence in court, but it does not directly strengthen the argument that prior

convictions should be called into doubt.

–CRITICAL REASONING–

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