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Solutions to the Most DifficultOfficial Assumption QuestionsAn e-GMAT ProductAuthored by: e-GMAT CR Team
e-GMAT LLC. Unauthorized copying forcommercial or competitive purposes is not allowed.TABLE OF CONTENTSINTRODUCTION . 4OG 13– QUESTION NO. 93 . 5SOLUTION . 5PASSAGE ANALYSIS . 5PRE-THINKING . 5ANALYSIS OF OPTION STATEMENTS . 6OG 13 – QUESTION NO. 96 . 8SOLUTION . 8PASSAGE ANALYSIS . 8PRE-THINKING . 8ANALYSIS OF OPTION STATEMENTS . 9OG 13 – QUESTION NO. 106 . 11SOLUTION . 11PASSAGE ANALYSIS . 11PRE-THINKING . 11ANALYSIS OF OPTION STATEMENTS . 12OG 13 – QUESTION NO. 109 . 14SOLUTION . 14PASSAGE ANALYSIS . 14PRE-THINKING . 15ANALYSIS OF OPTION STATEMENTS . 15OG 13 – QUESTION NO. 113 . 17SOLUTION . 17PASSAGE ANALYSIS . 17PRE-THINKING . 18ANALYSIS OF OPTION STATEMENTS . 19VERBAL REVIEW 2 N D ED. – QUESTION NO.63 . 20SOLUTION . 20PASSAGE ANALYSIS . 20PRE-THINKING . 20ANALYSIS OF OPTION STATEMENTS . 21VERBAL REVIEW 2ND ED. – QUESTION NO.67. 23SOLUTION . 231 Page
e-GMAT LLC. Unauthorized copying forcommercial or competitive purposes is not allowed.PASSAGE ANALYSIS . 23PRE-THINKING . 23ANALYSIS OF OPTION STATEMENTS . 24VERBAL REVIEW 2ND ED. – QUESTION NO.69. 26SOLUTION . 26PASSAGE ANALYSIS . 26PRE-THINKING . 26ANALYSIS OF OPTION STATEMENTS . 27VERBAL REVIEW 2ND ED. – QUESTION NO.76. 29SOLUTION . 29PASSAGE ANALYSIS . 29PRE-THINKING . 29ANALYSIS OF OPTION STATEMENTS . 30GMAT PREP – AGRICULTURAL SOCIETIES. 31SOLUTION . 31PASSAGE ANALYSIS . 31PRE-THINKING . 32ANALYSIS OF OPTION STATEMENTS . 33GMAT PREP – RDS TECHNOLOGY . 35SOLUTION . 35PASSAGE ANALYSIS . 35PRE-THINKING . 36ANALYSIS OF OPTION STATEMENTS . 37GMAT PREP – CIGARETTES . 39SOLUTION . 39PASSAGE ANALYSIS . 39PRE-THINKING . 39ANALYSIS OF OPTION STATEMENTS . 40GMAT PREP – HAZARDOUS WASTE . 42SOLUTION . 42PASSAGE ANALYSIS . 42PRE-THINKING . 42ANALYSIS OF OPTION STATEMENTS . 43GMAT PREP – NUBIANS . 452 Page
e-GMAT LLC. Unauthorized copying forcommercial or competitive purposes is not allowed.SOLUTION . 45PASSAGE ANALYSIS . 45PRE-THINKING . 46ANALYSIS OF OPTION STATEMENTS . 46GMAT PREP – SEPPHORIS . 48SOLUTION . 48PASSAGE ANALYSIS . 48PRE-THINKING . 48ANALYSIS OF OPTION STATEMENTS . 49GMAT PREP – COUNTERFEITING . 51SOLUTION . 51PASSAGE ANALYSIS . 51PRE-THINKING . 51ANALYSIS OF OPTION STATEMENTS . 523 Page
e-GMAT LLC. Unauthorized copying forcommercial or competitive purposes is not allowed.INTRODUCTIONDear Students,The e-GMAT CR team is happy to provide you with detailed solutions to the most challengingquestions in OG13 (Q90-Q123), VR 2nd Edition (Q60-Q83) and GMAT Prep Software (New and Old).This file contains solutions for the Assumption questions present in the above sources.We are proud to share these solutions with you, and we hope that these solutions contribute toyour success on the GMAT.Regards,The e-GMAT CR TeamPS: Please note that due to copyright issues, we cannot include the complete question text for OG13and VR 2nd Edition questions.4 Page
e-GMAT LLC. Unauthorized copying forcommercial or competitive purposes is not allowed.OG 13– QUESTION NO. 93Commentator: The theory of trade retaliation The commentator's argument relies on which of the following assumptions?A.B.C.D.E.No country actually .No country should .Trade disputes should .For any two .Countries close their .SOLUTIONPASSAGE ANALYSISCommentator: The theory of trade retaliation other country to reopen its markets.If every country any other.Key-points from this statement:1. Commentator author of the argument2. There is a theory called traderetaliation (TR) theory3. According to TR theory:a. If some countries are notallowed to trade in any marketof another countryb. then these countries should alsoclose some of their own marketsto the country that locked themout of its market(s)4. Reason behind (b) above: to createpressure on the opposite country toopen the closed marketsThis is author’s conclusion. The author saysthat if every country followed the TR theory,then there would be no two countries left thatwould trade with each other.PRE-THINKINGOur task in this question is to find out the author’s assumption behind his/her conclusion. Nowbasing his/her judgment on the dynamics of the TR theory, the author concludes that:If every country acted according to this theory, no country would trade with any other.So, basically the author is trying to say that if every country in the world followed the TR theory, asituation would arise when eventually no two countries would be left with any of their markets5 Page
e-GMAT LLC. Unauthorized copying forcommercial or competitive purposes is not allowed.open to each other. For instance if country Alpha and Gamma were to act according to TR theorythen ultimately all of Alpha’s markets would be close to Gamma and vice-versa. This is because eachcountry, following the TR theory, would keep closing down its markets to the other in order tocreate pressure on the opposite country to open its market(s). However, the essential question iswhy would this endless chain of reaction begin in the first place? The answer is very simple;the author assumes that: In the case of any two countries, at least one country has at least one of its markets closed tothe otherIf the above is not taken into account, the TR theory would have no basis to operate. This is becauseit is a retaliation theory, and to retaliate you must have an original action. In this case the originalaction is the situation in which, between any two countries, at least one market is closed.With the above analysis in mind, let’s take a look at the answer choices.ANALYSIS OF OPTION STATEMENTSA. No country actually .B. No country C. Trade disputes should D. For any two .This answer choice is not correct. Contrary toanswer choice A, in the situation on which theauthor’s conclusion is based, every country isindeed following the TR theory. Clearly, answerchoice A is not in the same line of thought asthe author’s conclusion and, hence, is not thecorrect answer.This option is incorrect. The conclusion talksabout a scenario where the countries act perTR theory, which involves blocking of markets.Therefore, this option statement which isagainst blocking of markets cannot be anassumption.This option is incorrect and irrelevant. Thesettling of trade disputes in an alternativefashion has no bearing on the outcome of theTR theory, which is what the argument dealswith. Hence, answer choice C fails to impact theauthor’s conclusion in any way whatsoever.This is the correct option. It is exactly what wepredicted in our pre-thinking phase. Asdiscussed earlier, the author’s conclusion aboutthe endless chain of trade reactions betweentwo countries would not hold true unless thecondition mentioned in answer choice D weretrue. If we negate this assumption, we get:It is not true that for any two countries, at leastone has some market closed to the other.6 Page
e-GMAT LLC. Unauthorized copying forcommercial or competitive purposes is not allowed.In the above scenario, the TR theory wouldhave no basis to operate as there is notinstigating point for any of the two countriesinvolved. Hence, the author’s conclusion wouldnot hold true.Clearly, answer choice D is the correct answer.E. Countries close their .This option is incorrect. It is out of scope. TheTR theory does not factor in the reason that thefirst instance of closing down the marketwould take place. The theory is only concernedwith what other country’s reaction should be,when it finds itself locked out of somecountry’s market. Hence, the statement givenin answer choice E has no bearing on theauthor’s conclusion.7 Page
e-GMAT LLC. Unauthorized copying forcommercial or competitive purposes is not allowed.OG 13 – QUESTION NO. 96Although parapsychology is often.The conclusion above is properly drawn if which of the following is assumed?A.B.C.D.E.If a field of .Since parapsychology uses scientific .Any enterprise that does .Any field of study .Since parapsychology raises clearly .SOLUTIONPASSAGE ANALYSISAlthough parapsychology is often Key-points from this statement:a. Parapsychology is normally considered apseudoscienceb. Author of the argument doesn’t agree withthe abovec. Author considers parapsychology a truescientific enterprise (conclusion of theargument)d. Author gives reason for treatingparapsychology as a true scientific branch.Reason is: parapsychology uses scientificmethodsPRE-THINKINGThe question stem asks us to find the assumption on which the argument depends. Now anassumption should have three basic characteristics:(a) It should present new information.(b) It should be a must be true statement (if we negate the assumption, the conclusion fallsapart).(c) It should support the argument.Keeping these three guidelines in mind, let’s look at our understanding of the reasons given andconclusion drawn in the passage.Conclusion given: parapsychology(is) a true scientific enterpriseReason for the conclusion: parapsychology uses scientific methods8 Page
e-GMAT LLC. Unauthorized copying forcommercial or competitive purposes is not allowed.So essentially the author must assume a link between using scientific methods and qualifying a fieldas scientific or not. Therefore, we can safely state that the author assumes that: If a field uses scientific methods, then it qualifies as a genuine scientific enterprise.With this pre-thinking let’s approach the answer choices.ANALYSIS OF OPTION STATEMENTSA. If a field of .B. Since parapsychology uses scientific .C. Any enterprise that does This option is incorrect. As per this choice, anecessary condition for a field to be consideredtrue science is that it should conclusivelyanswer the questions it raises. However, in thegiven argument the author distinctly statesthat since parapsychology uses scientificmethod such as using statistical test to examinethe questions raised, it is a true science.Therefore, it is amply clear that according tothe author, just approaching the questionsraised with scientific methods is a goodenough basis for a field to be considered atrue science.Also, please not that this option lays stress onlyon answering the questions conclusively; noemphasis is laid on using scientific methods inthe process. This aspect makes answer choiceA out of scope as well.Clearly this option is incorrect.This option is not correct as it is completely outof scope. The author has not implied anyrelationship between producing credibleresults and qualifying a field as a science on thebasis of these results. The underlying emphasisis just on the usage of scientific methods. Henceanswer choice B is incorrect.This option is incorrect. Firstly, the author’spurpose behind giving examples of scientificmethods such as controlled experiments andstatistical tests was not to define whatconstitutes scientific methods and what doesnot. So, it is possible that some other processescould as well be regarded as scientific methods.In such a case, a field could employ thoseprocesses and be qualified as a genuinescience.Secondly the author says that using suchscientific methods is a sufficient condition toregard parapsychology as a true science. Theauthor does not say it is a necessary condition9 Page
e-GMAT LLC. Unauthorized copying forD. Any field of study .commercial or competitive purposes is not allowed.that should be present in all true scientificenterprises. Therefore, the author’s conclusionis not dependent on the statement given inanswer choice C.This option is correct. It is exactly on the samelines as our pre-thought answer. For the authorto validate his conclusion, he must assume thatthere is a link between using scientific methodand qualifying a field as genuine scientificenterprise. Since this a must be true condition,when we negate this assumption, theconclusion of the argument must fall. Thenegated statement will be:It is not true that any field of science thatemploys scientific methods is a genuine scientificenterprise.The above statement shatters our faith in theauthor’s argument. Now the author can’t callparapsychology a science on the basis of itsusage of scientific methods as the qualifyingcriterion is not valid anymore.E. Since parapsychology raises clearly Hence option choice D is a must be truestatement that the author of the argument hasto assume for drawing the stated conclusion.This option is incorrect. It is an iSWAT: it picksup words from the given passage but changesthe context completely to make the answerchoice incorrect.The author of the argument mentions clearlystatable questions and controlled experiments togive examples of scientific methods used byparapsychology. The author’s argument isbased on the use of such scientific methods andnot their inter-relationship. Hence, answerchoice E is not correct.10 P a g e
e-GMAT LLC. Unauthorized copying forcommercial or competitive purposes is not allowed.OG 13 – QUESTION NO. 106Exposure to certain chemicals commonly.Which of the following is an assumption on which the argument depends?A.B.C.D.E.The number of school .Children who are allergic .Children who have allergic .The chemicals are not .Children attending elementary school .SOLUTIONPASSAGE ANALYSISExposure to certain chemicals some children. The author starts off by stating that certainchemicals which are commonly used inelementary schools are allergic in nature andso cause allergic reactions in some children.Elementary school nurses over the past tenNow this statement presents a fact about theyears.past ten years. According to this statement, theelementary school nurses reported that theproportion of school children, who are sent tothe nurses because the children got allergicreactions to the chemicals, has increased quitea lot over the past ten years.Therefore, either Renston's schoolchildren Based on the above two facts, the author nowwere ten years ago.concludes that since the proportion of childrenwho approach the school nurses for treatmentto allergies has increased significantly, therecould only be two causes for this increase.Either schoolchildren have been exposed togreater quantities of chemicals or theschoolchildren have become more sensitive tothe chemicals than the schoolchildren ten yearsago were.The question stem clearly asks us to find an assumption in the above argument.With this understanding, let us pre-think some possible assumptions.PRE-THINKINGLet us first look at the author’s line of reasoning. How does he arrive at the conclusion?11 P a g e
e-GMAT LLC. Unauthorized copying forcommercial or competitive purposes is not allowed.He presents a general fact about the chemicals used in schools. The chemicals used in schools causeallergies in some children.He then presents another fact about the past ten years. Over the past ten years, the school nurseshave reported a significant increase in the proportion of children that come to them for thetreatment of allergies caused by the chemicals.Based on these two facts, the author concludes that either the children are being exposed to morequantities of chemicals or children have become more sensitive to the chemicals.So based on two facts, the author concluded that there could be only two possible reasons that canexplain why a higher proportion of children has been reporting to the school nurses for treatment.In other words, the author assumes that there could be no other reason for the increase in thatnumber.However, this is a broad assumption. Let us try to prethink an assumption which is more specific.The author’s conclusion was that children are being exposed to more quantities of chemicals or thatchildren now are more sensitive. Now, let us ask ourselves the following. What if the quantity ofchemicals that the children are exposed to remained the same and children now are no moresensitive than children ten years ago were, but some other external factor is causing the increase inthe proportion of children that are getting affected?For example, what if the same amount of chemicals has a significantly higher effect on the childrenat higher temperatures and the average temperature of Renston has been quite high over the pastten years which wasn’t the case previously? Then that means the increase in the proportion ofchildren affected is neither because of more chemicals nor because children now are more sensitivebut because the temperature (or some other similar external trigger) is higher. This breaks downthe conclusion of the argument.Therefore the author assumes that there could be no other external factor that is causing asignificant increase in the number of children going to nurses.With this understanding, let us move on to the option choice analysis.ANALYSIS OF OPTION STATEMENTSA. The number of school .B. Children who are allergic .Observe that the argument talks about theproportion of children that are reporting to theschool nurses as a whole.A change in the number of nurses doesn’texplain why a higher proportion of children getallergies.This is an incorrect option.This is an irrelevant option statement.We are concerned about why there has been anincrease in the proportion of students that get12 P a g e
e-GMAT LLC. Unauthorized copying forC. Children who have allergic D. The chemicals are not .E. Children attending elementary school .commercial or competitive purposes is not allowed.affected by allergies because of chemicals usedat school and report to the school nurses.Allergies to other substances is irrelevant inthe argument. Such a comparison doesn’t helpin concluding why the proportion of childrenwho are getting infected due to exposure tochemicals used at school has increasedsignificantly over the past ten years.This seems to be the correct option because theauthor doesn’t consider anything about thislikelihood in his argument. So he seems to beassuming that the likelihood of affectedchildren approaching the school nurses hasn’tincreased.Just to be sure, let us take the negation of thisoption statement and see if it breaks down theconclusion.The negation of this option statement is“Children who have allergic reactions to thechemicals are more likely to be sent to aschool nurse now than they were ten yearsago.”Now, the above negated statement can be alikely reason for an increase in the proportionof children who approach the school nursesafter getting affected by allergies. If this is thecase, then the author’s c
e-GMAT LLC. Unauthorized copying for commercial or competitive purposes is not allowed. 4 P a g e INTRODUCTION Dear Students, The e-GMAT CR team is happy to provide you with detailed solutions to the most challenging questions in OG13 (Q90-Q123), VR 2nd Edition (Q60-Q8
