Q7 - Brownlea's post office must be replaced with a larger o

[chungyesol]

I don't understand why (B) is the right answer since we are unsure that the cost of building a parking lot is higher than the cost in difference between building a new post office in the center of town and outskirts of town. If so, why wouldn't (C) be an answer? It might cost more to expand city bus routes than to build a new post office in the outskirts of town.

Thanks in advance!

[timmydoeslsat]

A weaken question stem does not require the absolute destruction of the argument. We just want to shed doubt.

Our conclusion is that the post office could be built more cheaply on the outskirts of town.

This conclusion was reached on the evidence that land in the center of town is more expensive and that land cost is a significant part of total costs.

Answer choice C does not affect us in terms of the post office being built more cheaply. Even if the bus routes cost 1,000,000 dollars to expand them adequately, that does nothing to hurt the idea of the post office being built more cheaply on the outskirts.

Answer choice B brings another point of consideration regarding the total costs, the idea of a parking lot. The center of town location does not require a parking lot while the other does. That questions the idea of whether the outskirts one can be built cheaper than the center one.

[WaltGrace1983]

I'll add the wrong answers!

(A) This would affect a building in both the outskirts and in the center so this doesn't matter. It is going to be the same cost regardless (at least in reference to the building codes that is)

(C) Bus routes don't matter to the construction price of the building, as mentioned by Timmy.

(D) The use of the post office doesn't matter to the construction price of the building.

(E) First of all, we don't care about what happens if built in the center of town unless it said something the lines of "building in the city of town is free!" This is because we are trying to say that building in the OUTSKIRTS would have some additional expense. In addition, we don't care about when the construction happens - this doesn't affect the construction price of the building.

[bea_bya_09]

Isn't the correct answer (B)because it is talking about land ? since more land is needed to create not only the pot office building but also the parking lot one could think that maybe more money would be spent in those two things together than in a building in the center of town.

[rinagoldfield]

Hi All,

Great conversation. I’ll add my 2 cents:

This is a weaken question, so the first task is to find the argument core.

Premise 1: Cost of land is a significant part of construction cost.

Premise 2: Center-of-town land is more expensive than outskirts land.

Conclusion: Building the post office on the outskirts land will be cheaper.

This argument concerns COSTS. The argument overlooks the possibility that building along the outskirts may be more expensive than building in town for some other reason. For example, perhaps it costs a lot to bring construction materials to the outskirts of town.

(B) gets at exactly this flaw. It offers a new reason why building on the outskirts would be more expensive than building in town: you’d have to buy MORE land.

(A), (C), (D), and (E) are all out of scope. None of these answer choices address costs.