praguish Posted December 5, 2007 Share Posted December 5, 2007 Exports of United States wood pulp will rise considerably during this year. The reason for the rise is that the falling value of the dollar will make it cheaper for paper manufacturers in Japan and Western Europe to buy American wood pulp than to get it from any other source Which of the following is an assumption made in drawing the conclusion above? (A) Factory output of paper products in Japan and Western Europe will increase sharply during this year. (B) The quality of the wood pulp produced in the United States would be adequate for the purposes of Japanese and Western European paper manufacturers. © Paper manufacturers in Japan and Western Europe would prefer to use wood pulp produced in the United States if cost were not a factor. (D) Demand for paper products made in Japan and Western Europe will not increase sharply during this year. (E) Production of wood pulp by United States companies will not increase sharply during this year. I chose A but the OA is different. Can anyone pls explain Thank you Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mathdumber Posted December 5, 2007 Share Posted December 5, 2007 I think it is B i think the argument assumes that the Japan and Western Europ would just buy the stuff coz of the cheap price regardless OA??? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
praguish Posted December 5, 2007 Author Share Posted December 5, 2007 yes the OA is B. isn't A is contender too? since we cannot assume paper need in Japan and western EU will continue too. or relating the need to factory output is too far fetch? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ontheway Posted December 5, 2007 Share Posted December 5, 2007 Exports of United States wood pulp will rise considerably during this year. The reason for the rise is that the falling value of the dollar will make it cheaper for paper manufacturers in Japan and Western Europe to buy American wood pulp than to get it from any other source Which of the following is an assumption made in drawing the conclusion above? (A) Factory output of paper products in Japan and Western Europe will increase sharply during this year. (B) The quality of the wood pulp produced in the United States would be adequate for the purposes of Japanese and Western European paper manufacturers. © Paper manufacturers in Japan and Western Europe would prefer to use wood pulp produced in the United States if cost were not a factor. (D) Demand for paper products made in Japan and Western Europe will not increase sharply during this year. (E) Production of wood pulp by United States companies will not increase sharply during this year. I chose A but the OA is different. Can anyone pls explain Thank you Conclusion: Exports of United States wood pulp will rise considerably during this year. Premise: the falling value of the dollar will make it cheaper for paper manufacturers in Japan and Western Europe to buy American wood pulp than to get it from any other source IMPORTANT: Manufacturers in Japan and Western Europe will buy American wood pulp (not any wood pulp but only American wood pulp) from America rather than to buy from any other sources, from where they used to buy American wood pulp. I think question is formed ambiguously. Premise should be "the falling value of the dollar will make it cheaper for paper manufacturers in Japan and Western Europe to buy wood pulp from America than to get it from any other source" instead of "the falling value of the dollar will make it cheaper for paper manufacturers in Japan and Western Europe to buy American wood pulp than to get it from any other source". This change is critical to answer this question. As question is presented does not satisfy any of the answer choices but if we change the premise to "wood pulp from America" there will be certain possibility to answer this question. @praguish: What is the source of this question? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ontheway Posted December 5, 2007 Share Posted December 5, 2007 IF premise is modified with "wood pulp from America", then answer choice A is wrong because: A: If there is no increase in production but manufacturers switch their buying of wood pulp from other sources, they used to buy from, to America that will increase the export from America. Therefore no need to have an increase in production to justify the conclusion. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
praguish Posted December 5, 2007 Author Share Posted December 5, 2007 this qn came from 1000CR Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
powerthelogic Posted December 9, 2007 Share Posted December 9, 2007 I chose B ontheway , i agree with you one the difference between "American wood pulp" & "wood pulp from America" . But if you see that statement mentioning American wood pulp together with the "Exports of United States wood pulp will rise considerably during this year" , i feel that this difference is not reqd. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ontheway Posted December 9, 2007 Share Posted December 9, 2007 @powerthelogic: I do agree with your reasoning. but writing first statement this way: "Exports of United States' American wood pulp will rise considerably during this year" will be awkward that is why second sentence should throw some light on the real meaning where it could not did and made the whole sentence ambiguous. I think, it's a minor point here but could make me choose another answer on real GAMT :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anilmanu Posted December 9, 2007 Share Posted December 9, 2007 Exports of United States wood pulp will rise considerably during this year. The reason for the rise is that the falling value of the dollar will make it cheaper for paper manufacturers in Japan and Western Europe to buy American wood pulp than to get it from any other source Which of the following is an assumption made in drawing the conclusion above? (A) Factory output of paper products in Japan and Western Europe will increase sharply during this year. (B) The quality of the wood pulp produced in the United States would be adequate for the purposes of Japanese and Western European paper manufacturers. © Paper manufacturers in Japan and Western Europe would prefer to use wood pulp produced in the United States if cost were not a factor. (D) Demand for paper products made in Japan and Western Europe will not increase sharply during this year. (E) Production of wood pulp by United States companies will not increase sharply during this year. I chose A but the OA is different. Can anyone pls explain Thank you B is my option Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dynamicdhiraj Posted December 10, 2007 Share Posted December 10, 2007 How does 'The quality....' as mentioned in option B come into the picture.The argument is not even remotely related to quality. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mbawannabe Posted December 13, 2007 Share Posted December 13, 2007 B and C look equally good to me. I guess it is for questions like these when we can try apply logical negation. For those do not know what is logical negation it turns assumption question into a weaken question. (B) The quality of the wood pulp produced in the United States would NOT be adequate for the purposes of Japanese and Western European paper manufacturers. Certainly, if the quality is not suffice then price wouldnt matter. This one sure weakening the argument. GOOD. © Paper manufacturers in Japan and Western Europe would NOT prefer to use wood pulp produced in the United States if cost were not a factor. So, they wont buy if price did not matter. Does this weaken the conclusion/argument? I think NOT. B is a better choice. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
akshbald2 Posted June 9, 2008 Share Posted June 9, 2008 B certainly weakens the argument when negated....but guys I think c, when negated, weakens the argument equally well.. manufacturers will not prefer to buy American wood pulp even if cost were not a factor considerably weakens the argument that says that coz now cost is reduced manufacturers will buy.....no matter how much cost is reduced but manufacturers will not buy.... Both b and c are fine...i dn know what to choose....but seem to be equally good Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
naive2 Posted June 11, 2008 Share Posted June 11, 2008 it is B vs C... now look at C... it is more towards inference of argument. Argument already says that Manuf'er will buy American Pulp if cost is less... i.e. Export will rise if weak dollar. but B is the assumption that manuf'er r ready to replace one pulp with other iff everything else remains the same (including Quality) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.