CR Review
Transcript of CR Review
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CR REVIEW
A CEO of a major company noted a serious decline in worker productivity during the
previous five years. According to a report done by an outside consultant, productivity
dropped by 35% by the end of that period. The CEO has therefore initiated a plan to
boost productivity by giving employees shares of the company as part of their paypackage.
We can use the text above to show the four different parts of a Critical Reasoning text.
Conclusion/Main Idea - Most problems have a central idea or thesis. This is almostalways located in the sentence at the beginning of the text, or in the sentence at the very
end. In this case, it is at the end of the passage:
The CEO has therefore initiated a plan to boost productivity by giving employeesshares of the company as part of their pay package.
Notice the word therefore in that sentence. Words like therefore, thus, hence, and sousually tell us that this is the conclusion or the main idea. Let these words lead you to the
main idea.
Conclusion Indicators
hence
so
thus
follows that
conclude that
as a result
therefore
accordingly
consequently
shows that
implies
means that
Most often the conclusion of an argument is put in the form of a statement.Sometimes, however, the conclusion is given as a command or obligation.
Example:
"All things considered, you ought to vote."
Here, the author implies that you are obliged to vote.
The conclusion can even be put in the form of a question. This rhetorical technique is
quite effective in convincing people that a certain position is correct. We are more likely
to believe something if we feel that we concluded it on our own, or at least if we feel that
we were not told to believe it. A conclusion put in question form can have this result.
Example:
"The Nanuuts believe that they should not take from Nature anything
She cannot replenish during their lifetime. This assures that future
generations can enjoy the same riches of Nature that they have. At the
current rate of destruction, the rain forests will disappear during our
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lifetime. Do we have an obligation to future generations to prevent this
result?"
Here the author trusts that the power of her argument will persuade the reader to
answer the question affirmatively.
Taking this rhetorical technique one step further, the writer may build up to theconclusion but leave it unstated. This allows the reader to make up his own mind. If the
build-up is done skillfully, the reader will be more likely to agree with the author, without
feeling manipulated.
Example:
"He who is without sin should cast the first stone. There is no one here
who does not have a skeleton in his closet."
The unstated but obvious conclusion here is that none of the people has the rightto cast the first stone.
When determining the conclusion's scope be careful not to read any more or less into itthan the author states. GMAT writers often create wrong answer-choices by slightlyoverstating or understating the author's claim. Certain words limit the scope of a
statement. These words are called quantifiers--pay close attention to them. Following is a
list of the most important quantifiers:
Quantifiers
all
some
only
never
probably
except
most
could
always
must
likely
many
no
everywhere
alone
Example:
"Whether the world is Euclidean or non-Euclidean is still an open
question. However, if a star's position is predicted based on non-
Euclidean geometry, then when a telescope is pointed to where the star
should be it will be there. Whereas, if the star's position is predicted
based on Euclidean geometry, then when a telescope is pointed to wherethe star should be it won't be there. This strongly indicates that the
world is non-Euclidean."
Which one of the following best expresses the main idea of the
passage?
A. The world may or may not be Euclidean.
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B. The world is probably non-Euclidean.
C. The world is non-Euclidean.
D. The world is Euclidean.
E. The world is neither Euclidean nor non-Euclidean.
Choice (A) understates the main idea. Although the opening to the passage states thatwe don't know whether the world is non-Euclidean, the author goes on to give
evidence that it is non-Euclidean. Choice (C) overstates the main idea. The author
doesn't say that the world is non-Euclidean, just that evidence strongly indicates
that it is. In choice (B), the word "probably" properly limits the scope of the mainidea, namely, that the world is probably non-Euclidean, but we can't yet state so
definitively. The answer is (B).
Premise - Premises are the facts or evidence that support or lead to the conclusion.
Unlike assumptions, they are explicit. Here is an example from the text:
A CEO of a major company noted a serious decline in worker productivity during
the previous five years.
This premise helps the author lead to the conclusion or main idea of the text.
Once you've found the conclusion, most often everything else in the argument will be
either premises or "noise". The premises provide evidence for the conclusion; they formthe foundation or infrastructure upon which the conclusion depends. To determine
whether a statement is a premise, ask yourself whether it supports the conclusion. If so,
it's a premise. Earlier we saw that writers use certain words to flag conclusions; likewisewriters use certain words to flag premises. Following is a partial list of the most commonpremise indicators:
Premise Indicators
because
since
if
as
suppose
assume
for
is evident that
in that
owing to
inasmuch as
may be derived from
Assumption- Assumptions are the facts that support the conclusion, like the premise
does, but unlike the conclusion and premises they are not stated in the text: they areimplicit. Here is what would be an example of an assumption for this particular Critical
Reasoning problem:
Owning something or part of something obliges you work harder to make itsucceed.
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Note that this line is not in the text: it cannotbe in the text if it is an assumption of the
author. But it does give the argument as a whole some sense, and also supports the
conclusion.
Supporting Information- Like a premise, this is stated and explicit information
embedded in the text, but unlike a premise, it does not support the conclusion. At best itsupports a premise or provides further detail or information regarding a premise. From
the text:
According to a report done by an outside consultant, productivity dropped by35% by the end of that period.
This sentence supports the first sentence, the premise that notes that productivity has
dropped. Supporting Information does not support the Conclusion or Main Idea, rather, itsupports information that is already in the text.
The following strategies should help you with all the Critical Reasoning questions.
1. KISS - Remember the old saying, Keep It Simple Stupid i.e. KISS? It also appliesto Critical Reasoning. The key to Critical Reasoning is to focus on what the
question is asking you to do, finding an answer choice that best answers the
question. THAT'S ALL YOU SHOULD DO. Some books tell you to think of the'scope' or 'parameters' of the argument. That's valid too it is basically saying the
same thing. Just answer the question, do not read too much into it or let your own
knowledge of a subject lead you to pick the wrong answer. KISS.
2. Patterns - Look for particular types of questions, and then use the strategies
appropriate for that type of question to choose the right answer. We will be
looking at different types of Critical Reasoning Questions in the next section.
3. Identify the Argument - Sounds obvious? Nonetheless, many forget or do notknow the importance of carrying out this absolutely essential task. In order to do
this, imagine what would satisfy the question. After you have imagined what
could satisfy the question, look for it down below in the five answer choices. Is it
right there, or very similar to it, in answer choice B, for example? If so, then Bprobably is the answer. Read the other answer choices quickly, but this is
probably the right answer. This strategy saves you some valuable time.
Of course, this strategy does not apply to Supply the Conclusion questions, but it
does especially matter forWeaken, Strengthen, Continue the Idea and
ASSUMPTION questions.
4. Silly Answer Choices - There are ridiculous or nonsensical answer choices in
many questions. If an answer choice seems against common sense, or makes nosense if the main idea is true, then you can probably eliminate it.
5. "2 OUT OF 5" RULE
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Creating a good but incorrect answer-choice is much harder than developing the
correct answer. For this reason, usually only one attractive wrong answer-choice
is presented. This is called the "2 out of 5" rule. That is, only two of the fiveanswer-choices will have any real merit. Hence, even if you don't fully understand
an argument, you probably can still eliminate the three fluff choices, thereby
greatly increasing your odds of answering the question correctly.
Eliminate! - Rather than making a choice immediately, it is almost always better toeliminate down to one or two answers. Eliminate the ones you know do not make sense.
So if you are left with two answer choices, and cannot decide between them, guess. At
least you have eliminated it down to 50-50 odds. That's better than Las Vegas.
There are four types of questions that account for the majority of the questions in Critical
Reasoning. You MUST know how to deal with these types of questions.1. Weaken the Argument
2. Strengthen the Argument
3. Supply the Conclusion4. Supply the Assumption
5. Paradox
6. Evaluation
7. Inference
These are the strategies that apply to all Critical Reasoning questions.
1. KISS. Keep things clear and simple.2. Look for particular types of questions (for example Weaken the Argument), and
then use the strategies appropriate for that type of question to choose the right
answer.3. Identify the Argument.
4. Eliminate silly or nonsensical answers.
5. Eliminate answer choices that do not answer the question.
For specific question types
Strategies for each different type of question.
Weaken the Argument questions
1. Identify the argument. Remember that that's usually in the first or last line.
2. Anticipate what will be the answer, if possible. Imagine what would satisfy thequestion- what would strengthen the argument. Then look for it in the answer
choices.3. Eliminate answer choices that do not weaken the argument.
4. If there are two or three answer choices left after the process of elimination, thenchoose!
Strengthen the Argument questions
1. Identify the argument. Remember, that's usually in the first or last line.
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2. Anticipate what will be the answer, if possible. Imagine what would satisfy the
question- what would strengthen the argument. Then look for it in the answer
choices.3. Eliminate answer choices that do not strengthen the argument.
4. If there are two or three answer choices left after the process of elimination, then
choose!Supply the Conclusion
1. Identify the premises of the argument.2. Assume all the premises are true. Try to combine or link those premises. Is there
an obvious conclusion that could be made from these premises?
3. Eliminate answer choices that don't deal with or are supported by ALL of the
premises, or that don't make sense from the information given.4. If there are two or three answer choices left after the process of elimination, then:
choose!
Supply the Assumption questions
1. Identify the premises of the argument.2. Identify the conclusion. Remember, that's usually in the first or last sentence of
the text.
3. Identify the gap in the logic of the argument. What's missing or needed to make
this argument convincing?4. What's the new element or factor in the conclusion? The assumption will probably
introduce it.
5. Go through each answer choice. Does it strengthen the conclusion? If not, then
eliminate it. Eliminate silly or nonsensical answer choices.6. Choose! Don't waste time!
There are three types of Arguments:
1.AnalogyArgument uses evidence about X to reach a conclusion about Y.
Sugar to rats Rat became activeHumans who want to be active should have sugar.
To strengthen rats and Humans have similar effect of Sugar
To weaken rats and Humans have dissimilar effect of Sugar
2. Sampling or StatisticalArguments reach a conclusion about a group of people based on evidence
about some subset of that group.
A survey of airline passengers indicated that 85 % of them would eat
chocolate if it were offered as a midflight snack. Clearly most airline
passengers would njoy popcorn as a midflight snack.
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To strengthen: Subset is the right representation of the group.
To weaken: Subset is the wrong representation of the group. So we can saythat the ppl who were surveyed were the staff of a chocolate company.
3. Causal ArgumentIt uses evidences that X and Y occur together to reach the conclusion that X
causes Y.
Example: Increase in Dollar will increase InflationAssumption: Increase in Inflation does not increase Dollar
Rule:If A then B
If not A then not B (wrong)If not B then not A (right)