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GMAT Question of the Day : Critical Reasoning

A drug that is highly effective in treating certain types of cancerous growth can, at present, be obtained only from the cartilage of a particular sub-species of shark, a sub-species which is quite rare in the wild.? One must kill 50 sharks to make one pound of the drug.? If follows, therefore, that continued production [...]

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Written by Take GMAT Team on February 7th, 2010 with 45 comments.
Read more articles on GMAT Critical Reasoning and GMAT Question of the Day.

A drug that is highly effective in treating certain types of cancerous growth can, at present, be obtained only from the cartilage of a particular sub-species of shark, a sub-species which is quite rare in the wild.? One must kill 50 sharks to make one pound of the drug.? If follows, therefore, that continued production of the drug must inevitably lead to the extinction of this sub-species of shark.

Which of the following, if true, most seriously weakens the argument above?

A) The drug made from the shark cartilage is dispensed to doctors from a central authority.
B) The drug made from the shark cartilage is expensive to produce.
C) Other organs of the shark can be utilized to produce different drugs.
D) The sub-species of shark will reproduce in captivity under the proper conditions.
E) This sub-species of shark generally lives in largely inaccessible waters.

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Written by Take GMAT Team on February 7th, 2010 with 45 comments.
Read more articles on GMAT Critical Reasoning and GMAT Question of the Day.

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45 comments

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Get your own gravatar by visiting gravatar.com Harshvadan
#1. February 23rd, 2007, at 12:31 PM.

answ. is D

Get your own gravatar by visiting gravatar.com Nik
#2. February 23rd, 2007, at 2:06 PM.

I think the answer is (E).

Oh! Those poor sharks! Let the CR hypothesis be untrue.

Get your own gravatar by visiting gravatar.com Leslie
#3. February 23rd, 2007, at 7:38 PM.

It’s D

Get your own gravatar by visiting gravatar.com KA
#4. February 23rd, 2007, at 8:30 PM.

I think tht it is D

Get your own gravatar by visiting gravatar.com kavyashree
#5. February 24th, 2007, at 1:23 PM.

D

Get your own gravatar by visiting gravatar.com Ram
#6. February 24th, 2007, at 7:23 PM.

D, i think…

Get your own gravatar by visiting gravatar.com kartik
#7. February 26th, 2007, at 1:17 PM.

D

Get your own gravatar by visiting gravatar.com prakash
#8. February 26th, 2007, at 7:14 PM.

D

Get your own gravatar by visiting gravatar.com Did
#9. April 14th, 2007, at 4:58 PM.

D

Get your own gravatar by visiting gravatar.com aman
#10. February 25th, 2008, at 10:40 AM.

d

Get your own gravatar by visiting gravatar.com shreyas
#11. February 27th, 2008, at 2:27 PM.

“E”

Get your own gravatar by visiting gravatar.com reetu
#12. March 11th, 2008, at 2:57 PM.

D
The argument says that the continued killing of Shark for making this drug will be responsible for its extinction. the argument can be weakend by stating that if the sharks are used to produce the drugs under supervision that allows this species to reproduce, hence postponing its extinction.

Get your own gravatar by visiting gravatar.com robin
#13. April 16th, 2008, at 9:23 PM.

D

Get your own gravatar by visiting gravatar.com shyam
#14. July 26th, 2008, at 2:14 PM.

The answer is D.

Get your own gravatar by visiting gravatar.com shalabh
#15. July 26th, 2008, at 9:03 PM.

D

Get your own gravatar by visiting gravatar.com Vijay
#16. July 26th, 2008, at 10:13 PM.

E.The para says that the sub species of the shark will become extinct..I think any argument that targets this will weaken the argument.
E says that shark generally lives in largely inaccessible waters which would effectively mean that not all the shark would be caught to produce treatment.

TakeGmat….OA please.

Get your own gravatar by visiting gravatar.com kapil dhawan
#17. July 27th, 2008, at 12:34 PM.

its surly D AS IT WEEKNS THE ARGUMENT BY CONFIRMING THAT WITH PROPER CONDITIONS THE SHARKS CAN REPRODUSE. THAT MEANS THEY (SHARKS) CAN GROW IN POPULATION SO IT STRAIGHTAWAY WEEKNS THE POINT OF EXTINCION

Get your own gravatar by visiting gravatar.com prash.means.business@gmail.com
#18. July 27th, 2008, at 3:52 PM.

E, seems to be correct,.

D,says it’ll reproduce, but under artificial conditions, where they can easily be killed for the drug. more the reproduction , more the killing, for drug.

Get your own gravatar by visiting gravatar.com rajuamresh
#19. July 27th, 2008, at 4:29 PM.

I think its D.

Get your own gravatar by visiting gravatar.com Akshit Bajaj
#20. July 27th, 2008, at 5:17 PM.

I say the answer is E .. as if sharks live in inaccessible waters, they cannot be accessed… that means they can’t get extinct… wot say guys ? n wot say GMAT team…

It can’t be D as.. we are not sure whether the sharks are being kept captive for reproduction or not….

Get your own gravatar by visiting gravatar.com lakshmi
#21. July 27th, 2008, at 8:25 PM.

D

Get your own gravatar by visiting gravatar.com yash
#22. July 27th, 2008, at 11:24 PM.

E.

D raises many counter questions, answers to which might strengthen the argument.

Get your own gravatar by visiting gravatar.com jay
#23. July 27th, 2008, at 11:27 PM.

E

Get your own gravatar by visiting gravatar.com mag
#24. July 28th, 2008, at 12:56 AM.

E, beacuse it is inaccessible, it will not be extinct.

Get your own gravatar by visiting gravatar.com Latha
#25. July 28th, 2008, at 9:28 AM.

My ans is D.
What does the OG say?

Get your own gravatar by visiting gravatar.com Rajesh
#26. July 28th, 2008, at 10:04 AM.

I will go for D.

From the given argument Conclusion is
Continued production of the drug must inevitably lead to the extinction of this sub-species of shark.

To weaken this conclusion the shark will not get extinct if reproduction happens in higher number it is clearly stated in D.

The sub-species of shark will reproduce in captivity under the proper conditions.

Take GMAT give your answer.

Get your own gravatar by visiting gravatar.com sky
#27. July 28th, 2008, at 10:59 AM.

D I think it is the option D

Get your own gravatar by visiting gravatar.com Immanuel Ashok
#28. July 28th, 2008, at 11:59 AM.

The conclusion is that the continued production of THE DRUG leads to the extintion of this species. Further THE DRUG is created from the cartiledge of the shark.

If other organs of the shark can create OTHER DRUGS, then the continued production of these OTHER DRUGS itself can lead to extinction of the shark and not necessarily THE DRUG as mentioned in the conclusion.

Hence the correct answer is C.

Get your own gravatar by visiting gravatar.com Deepak
#29. July 28th, 2008, at 7:18 PM.

D

Get your own gravatar by visiting gravatar.com The Don
#30. July 28th, 2008, at 9:34 PM.

D, MOST weakens…

E weakens the arguement, but the accessibility of the waters is not addressed in the premise. It’s simply unknown whether we’ve already devised a way to capture the sharks despite the inaccessiblity. Furthermore, the premises made do not hinge on this fact.

D, weakens the most because it DIRECTLY attacks the premise that the sharks are rare in the wild…well it follows that if they’re rare in the wild, but procreate in captivity, this premise is invalid, or needs further information for validation.

None other directly attack any of the premises or conclusion made.

Get your own gravatar by visiting gravatar.com parvez
#31. July 29th, 2008, at 2:42 PM.

The answer is E.
Nothing is mentioned about reproduction of shark. The argument that weakens the argument is E becuase it states that the shark stays in mostly inaccessible water thereby concluding that the shark will remain safe and large scale slaughter of shark wont take place for the drug manufacture.

Get your own gravatar by visiting gravatar.com Laura
#32. July 29th, 2008, at 8:03 PM.

D, with the same logic as The Don.

Get your own gravatar by visiting gravatar.com Pawan
#33. August 4th, 2008, at 4:27 PM.

D

Get your own gravatar by visiting gravatar.com Kuldeep Sharma
#34. November 12th, 2008, at 2:25 AM.

D

Get your own gravatar by visiting gravatar.com JT
#35. February 7th, 2010, at 1:33 AM.

D

E sounds good too, but the conclusions says that “production will lead to extinction..” so the implication of E, that production itself will be very difficult, does not actually weaken the conclusion that production implies extinction.

Get your own gravatar by visiting gravatar.com JT
#36. February 7th, 2010, at 1:34 AM.

… whereas D says we can capture a small number of sharks, breed them in captivity to produce the drug, and leave the remaining wild ones alone, allowing production without extinction.

Get your own gravatar by visiting gravatar.com BHANU
#37. February 7th, 2010, at 3:51 AM.

d

Get your own gravatar by visiting gravatar.com Matt M
#38. February 7th, 2010, at 1:12 PM.

imma go with D on this one

Get your own gravatar by visiting gravatar.com Basant
#39. February 7th, 2010, at 5:21 PM.

i will go with D… i weakens the statement by saying that the population wont decrease bcoz sharks will reproduce in the captivity…

Get your own gravatar by visiting gravatar.com kashmira
#40. February 8th, 2010, at 12:49 AM.

D is the answer
Since the strong point of the passage is the extinction in sub-species of shark , so the most powerfull point to weaken this is to go against the growth of species.Therefore, D is the weak statement for the stimulus because it shows the captive reproduction in sub-species of shark.

Get your own gravatar by visiting gravatar.com aryan
#41. February 8th, 2010, at 2:00 AM.

D….but take gmat what´s wrong with E….guide pls

Get your own gravatar by visiting gravatar.com nishant_mba
#42. February 8th, 2010, at 3:09 AM.

LETS ELIMINATE WITH SOME COMMON SENSE:
(a) DISTRIBUTION THROUGH CENTRAL AUTHORITY– CAN NOT CHECK BLACK MARKETING. YOU KNOW DRUG TRAFFICKING.
(b) he drug made from the shark cartilage is expensive to produce: DOESN’T MATTER, WE DONT KNOW-MAY BE MANY PEOPLE ARE READY TO PAY BOMBSHELLS TO COMBAT CANCER.
(C)Other organs of the shark can be utilized to produce different drugs: IRRELEVANT
(D): YEAH THAT IS WIN-WIN.. YOU KNOW ABOUT SWEET WATER PEARLS
(e): INACCESSIBLE IS A RELATIVE TERM.. VERY SUBJECTIVE, IT YOU ASSOCIATE A RIGHT PRICE, ANY LOCATION IS ACCESSIBLE. THIS OPTION IS LOOSE ONE.

Get your own gravatar by visiting gravatar.com adutta24
#43. February 8th, 2010, at 3:34 AM.

D

Get your own gravatar by visiting gravatar.com XYZ
#44. February 8th, 2010, at 11:02 AM.

1.A drug …can be obtained …
2.continued production of the drug MUST inevitably lead to the extinction

These two points shows that the procedure of drug production is not currently carried out . So the answer should be E .

Get your own gravatar by visiting gravatar.com Vivek
#45. February 10th, 2010, at 9:41 PM.

It’s d.

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