Solutions
Get detailed explanations to advanced GMAT questions.
Question
Frobisher, a sixteenth-century English explorer, had soil samples from Canada’s Kodlunarn Island examined for gold content. Because high gold content was reported, Elizabeth I funded two mining expeditions. Neither expedition found any gold there. Modern analysis of the island’s soil indicates a very low gold content. Thus the methods used to determine the gold content of Frobisher’s samples must have been inaccurate.
Which of the following is an assumption on which the argument depends?
Option A:
The gold content of the soil on Kodlunarn Island is much lower today than it was in the sixteenth century.
Option B:
The two mining expeditions funded by Elizabeth I did not mine the same part of Kodlunarn Island.
Option C:
The methods used to assess the gold content of the soil samples provided by Frobisher were different from those generally used in the sixteenth century.
Option D:
Frobisher did not have soil samples from any other Canadian island examined for gold content.
Option E:
Gold was not added to the soil samples collected by Frobisher before the samples were examined.
Difficulty Level
EasySolution
Option E is the right answer.
Option Analysis
Question type: Find the assumption
Summary of the argument: Because of the inaccurate gold contents being indicated in the study conducted earlier and now, the argument comes to the conclusion that one of the methods is inaccurate.
A) This tells that the method is accurate – Hence weakens.
B) We are not worried about which part of the island is mined.
C) The methods, according to the option, were different. Doesn’t comment anything about the accuracy of the same.
D) We are not worried about other islands.
E) Correct Answer
Related Questions
- Analyzing campaign expenditures, the media has had as a focus the high costs and low ethics of campaign…
- The OLEX Petroleum Company has recently determined that it could cut its refining costs by closing its Grenville refinery and….
- Not only did the systematic clearing of forests in the United States create farmland…
- For the farmer who takes care to keep them cool, providing them with high-energy feed, and milking…
- Radio stations with radio data system (RDS) technology broadcast special program information that…