Tricky CR,Expert held needed

[suyash.tiwari]

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.
(C) 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.

While the OA is B, I am not able to rule out C as the answer.
Experts please help me nail this one.

[jnelson0612]

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.
(C) 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.

While the OA is B, I am not able to rule out C as the answer.
Experts please help me nail this one.

Sure! Let's break the argument into pieces first:
Conclusion: Exports of U.S. wood pulp will rise considerably this year.
Why? Because:
Premise: The dollar is falling, and thus it is cheaper for European and Asian paper manufacturers to buy U.S. wood pulp than to get it from any other source.

An assumption MUST be true for the conclusion to be true. One technique we can use to determine the assumption is negation. Negation is based on this fact: the opposite of the assumption will severely weaken the conclusion. So let's take our two contenders for the assumption, take the reverse of them, and see which one harms the conclusion.

(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.

Yikes! This is a serious problem and calls the conclusion that U.S. pulp exports to Europe and Asia will rise. How can that be if the wood pulp is not adequate?

(C) Paper manufacturers in Japan and Western Europe would NOTprefer to use wood pulp produced in the United States if cost were not a factor.

Well, okay. They wouldn't want to use U.S. wood pulp if cost weren't a factor; however, this argument says that cost is a factor. It is cheaper for the foreign countries to use U.S. wood pulp because the dollar is falling. In fact, the argument uses cost as a premise for why the U.S. export of wood pulp will rise. Thus, cost IS a factor. What they would prefer otherwise is irrelevant to this situation, and thus this answer does not destroy our conclusion.

I hope that this helps!

[nowwithgmat]

thanks i got the point....

[jnelson0612]

Good to hear, thanks! :-)