Hunter: Hunters alone are blamed for the decline in Greenroc

[Chetan]

Hunter: Hunters alone are blamed for the decline in Greenrock National Forest's deer population over the past ten years. Yet clearly, black bears have also played an important role in this decline. In the past ten years, the forest's protected black bear population has risen sharply, and examination of black bears found dead in the forest during the deer hunting season showed that a number of them had recently fed on deer.

In the hunter's argument, the boldface portion plays which of the following roles?

A. It is the main conclusion of the argument.
B. It is an objection that has been raised against the main conclusion of the argument.
C. It is a judgment that the argument opposes.
D. It is a finding that the argument seeks to explain
E. It is a biased observation of the hunter

[Guest]

hi chetan,
i believe this question is a bit tricky but solvable. i believe the answer is D. I found this answer through process of elimination.

A. It is the main conclusion of the argument.
(not true b/c the main conclusion isn't stated. i believe the main conclusion is that both bears and the hunters are responsible for the deer death...the bolded statement only states the bears involvement)
B. It is an objection that has been raised against the main conclusion of the argument. (not true, b/c the bolded statement actually supports the main conclusion)
C. It is a judgment that the argument opposes. (not true, b/c the bolded statement actually supports the main conclusion)
D. It is a finding that the argument seeks to explain (good, you can tell by the last statement that the author is trying to put supporting details)
E. It is a biased observation of the hunter (no mention of hunter's observation)


What is the Answer? [/b]

[Chetan]

I forgot to site the source, its from 1000SC. The answer is B.
I think the tempting answer is A, which is what I picked. I am still not convinced that the highlighted portion is NOT the conclusion.

Chetan.

[RonPurewal]

I forgot to site the source, its from 1000SC. The answer is B.
I think the tempting answer is A, which is what I picked. I am still not convinced that the highlighted portion is NOT the conclusion.

Chetan.

1000sc? huh?
this isn't even a sentence correction problem; how is it from 1000sc, which is a collection of sentence correction problems?

please post the correct source.
thank you.

[LP1]

This is a GMATPrep question. I actually got this question and answered D , however, the correct answer given was A!! not even B, which was my initial choice but after a little consideration went with D based on the same reasoning as 'Guest' above.

Although, I may be able to see why A after knowing what the answer is, the question is how to be sure what the correct answer is while taking the test. Some of these correct answers from GPrep sends your brain to a wild spin and makes you second guess everything. And we know second guessing is such a time waster.

I am not questioning or finding issues with the correct answers but I can almost swear that I've seen questions with correct answers (both in SC and CR) that use a certain line of reasoning or logic but that logic/reasoning is tossed out of the window when it comes to another question, which is quite similar to the original one albeit with some minor changes, such as different names, etc.

I guess I am trying to figure out a reliable way to go about attacking such questions.

[selva.e]

LP1,

"practice makes man perfect" - this i learned from Sachin Tendulkar.:-) (He quoted in an interview)

But for this case, i wonder where is the catch.

A is clear answer .

The premise "In the past ten years, the forest's protected black bear population has risen sharply, and examination of black bears found dead in the forest during the deer hunting season showed that a number of them had recently fed on deer"

says that deer is also a cause. How could one conclude that "bold face" is an objection.

[Kweku.Amoako]

Hi

I think it's tricky because it's hard to pin point the main conclusion. The conclusion could be either

1) Yet clearly, black bears have also played an important role in this decline

or

2) Both hunters and black bears caused the the decline of the dear population

If the above is true then A could be correct because of (1) above.

B is not possible because boldface can only either be THE CONCLISION in the case of (1) above, or in support of the conclusion in the case of (2) above.

C is wrong for the same reason

D is wrong because the boldface is a claim and not a finding. Rather, the evidence provided, "In the past ten years, the forest's protected black bear population has risen sharply, and examination of black bears found dead in the forest during the deer hunting season showed that a number of them had recently fed on deer," could be the finding to support the claim in boldface.

E is wrong because it is a claim and not an observation

[LP1]

Thanx y'all.

Selva, yes I agree B cannot be the answer since there is no objection, which is why I later decided to go with D.

The problem was that the boldface seemed to me as a simple statement or a comment...and the passage didn't really have a conclusion. Coming from this angle choice D made sense to me. But Kweku your explanation helps, thanx.

Also, like I'd mentioned previously, in retrospect I could see why A was the answer. I think I was stumped by the use of "Yet" in the boldface since I didn't think a conclusion can start with "Yet". But maybe I should have paid more attention to "clearly", which seems to provide the hint that the author is about to make a conclusion.

[esledge]

Great discussion everyone!

Since this is from GMATPrep, I'm going to move the thread to that folder and revise the topic according to our posting guidelines.

LP1, in response to your last message:
Yet, However, But ...can all introduce conclusions.
Although, Despite, Because.... all introduce premises.