GMAT Question of the Day: Critical Reasoning

The average normal infant born in the United States weighs between twelve and fourteen pounds at the age of three months. Therefore, if a three-month-old child weighs only ten pounds, its weight gain has been below the United States average.
Which of the following indicates a flaw in the reasoning above?
A) Weight is only one measure [...]

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Written by Take GMAT Team on February 8th, 2010 with 14 comments.
Read more articles on GMAT Critical Reasoning and GMAT Question of the Day.

A) Weight is only one measure of normal infant development.
B) Some three-month-old children weigh as much as seventeen pounds.
C) It is possible for a normal child to weigh ten pounds at birth.
D) The phrase ?below average? does not necessarily mean insufficient.
E) Average weight gain is not the same as average weight.

Written by Take GMAT Team on February 8th, 2010 with 14 comments.
Read more articles on GMAT Critical Reasoning and GMAT Question of the Day.

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14 comments

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vishal
#1. July 30th, 2006, at 12:49 AM.

vishwa
#2. July 31st, 2006, at 4:24 AM.

unknown13
#3. July 31st, 2006, at 1:24 PM.

the answer is E

V Pat
#4. July 31st, 2006, at 7:01 PM.

E) Average weight gain is not the same as average weight.

GMATTER
#5. July 31st, 2006, at 9:28 PM.

The evidence on which the conclusion is based concerns only average weight, but the conclusion concerns average weight gain. Because there is not necessarily a connection between an absolute measurement-such as weight-and a rate of increase-such as weight gain-this argument is flawed. The relevant reasoning error is described in E, which is the best answer. Neither of A and D identifies a reasoning error in the passage, since the passage makes no claim that weight is the only relevant measure of infant development in general, and no claim about sufficiency. B and C are consistent with the claims in the passage, and neither identifies a flaw in the argument.

Take GMAT Team
#6. July 31st, 2006, at 9:33 PM.