MGMAT CAT 5 CR Question

[jnelson0612]

hi chris,

I am still not convinced with the explanation of (A). It is already mentioned in the text about the symptoms of the disease with enough certainty.because if that would not have been the case then the sentence could be ,
"Symptoms of the disease might be abdominal cramps, bloating, and anemia. "

Doctors always define a disease with few basic symptoms which must be there in the patient to declare that the patient is inflicted with this SPECIAL disease.

need ur help,

TIMA

You are correct that doctors define a disease with a few basic symptoms, but you are not correct that all must be there to declare that a patient is suffering from that particular disease. A symptom is what is *likely* to be present if the person has the disease; every person does not have to have every symptom in order for the disease to be there.

I just went on the Mayo Clinic website and found the following verbatim information about the common cold (note that the bolding is mine):
"Signs and symptoms of a common cold may include:
Runny or stuffy nose
Itchy or sore throat
Cough
Congestion
Slight body aches or a mild headache
Sneezing
Watery eyes
Low-grade fever
Mild fatigue

So clearly if you have a cold you may have some of those symptoms; you don't have to have all of them.

The takeaway from this problem is to be VERY wary of extreme language on a "draw a conclusion" type of CR problem.

[satyaking]

hi chris,

I am still not convinced with the explanation of (A). It is already mentioned in the text about the symptoms of the disease with enough certainty.because if that would not have been the case then the sentence could be ,
"Symptoms of the disease might be abdominal cramps, bloating, and anemia. "

Doctors always define a disease with few basic symptoms which must be there in the patient to declare that the patient is inflicted with this SPECIAL disease.

need ur help,

TIMA

You are correct that doctors define a disease with a few basic symptoms, but you are not correct that all must be there to declare that a patient is suffering from that particular disease. A symptom is what is *likely* to be present if the person has the disease; every person does not have to have every symptom in order for the disease to be there.

I just went on the Mayo Clinic website and found the following verbatim information about the common cold (note that the bolding is mine):
"Signs and symptoms of a common cold may include:
Runny or stuffy nose
Itchy or sore throat
Cough
Congestion
Slight body aches or a mild headache
Sneezing
Watery eyes
Low-grade fever
Mild fatigue

So clearly if you have a cold you may have some of those symptoms; you don't have to have all of them.

The takeaway from this problem is to be VERY wary of extreme language on a "draw a conclusion" type of CR problem.

thanks "Jamie" for going that extra mile.

[jnelson0612]

You are welcome!

[aagar2003]

you are not correct that all must be there to declare that a patient is suffering from that particular disease. A symptom is what is *likely* to be present if the person has the disease; every person does not have to have every symptom in order for the disease to be there.

So clearly if you have a cold you may have some of those symptoms; you don't have to have all of them.

The takeaway from this problem is to be VERY wary of extreme language on a "draw a conclusion" type of CR problem.

I really don't agree with the explanation. You have mentioned that

you don't have to have all of them

. But if you do have all of them, you know you definitely have COLD.


I really have a choice between C and E here in this question and C is better than E.

With E, taking the assertion from recognizing harmless substances or not to recognizing harmful substances is a bit too much. Example, consider sunlight or any other light with high wavelength is harmful to my eyes and all other lights are harmless. Now recognizing and distinguishing should be interpreted differently in this option.

Interpreting option E with the word "recognize" -
If I am suffering from color blindness, I will not be able to recognize all colors in the rainbow or from a prism in a physics experiment. So my EYES cannot always recognize these harmless lights. BUT if my eyes had direct exposure to sunlight (a harmful substance), they will always contract, thereby indicating their ability to ALWAYS recognize bright light (a harmful).

However, if the option were to say "The human body cannot always distinguish between the harmless and harmful substances", it would have been better.

But now consider C. C is one the scenarios in which the person experiences all of them. If that person does experience, all of them, he/she will have Celiac disease.
The argument says "the symptoms of the disease include all these". It does not say MIGHT include or includes EITHER of abdominal cramps, bloating and anemia or will ONLY have Celiac disease.
The person with all these symptoms might have other diseases as well. BUT that is not in either the scope of the passage or the answer choice.

[jnelson0612]

I really don't agree with the explanation. You have mentioned that

you don't have to have all of them

. But if you do have all of them, you know you definitely have COLD.

Not true! :-) For example, bloating is a symptom of ovarian cancer. If I have bloating, do I definitely have ovarian cancer? Well, no. I may have ovarian cancer, or I may have some other disease.

In this case, the symptoms of celiac are abdominal cramping, bloating, and anemia. If a patient has them, that person MAY have celiac disease. However, these symptoms could also be a symptom of a different disease.

It's totally okay with me if you disagree with me, but if you are going to get these questions right and do well on the GMAT it's important to understand this question type. The answer you choose MUST be 100% logically correct using the information provided without any assumptions. You are making the assumption here that there is no other disease that could possibly have these symptoms, and that is something that we just do not know based on the information given. For each answer, if you just ask yourself "does this answer HAVE to be true given the information provided" you will have a much greater chance of getting the question right.

[wasim.iit]

This is about options (D).

The stimulus says "...gluten, a protein found in wheat, barley, and certain other grains."

Option (D) : Gluten is found only in grains.

Common sense tells me that option (D) is a slightly far fetched claim owing to the use of "only".

However, it is possible that gluten is found in other items as well but there is nothing in the stimulus to suggest that. In fact the stimulus explicitly states the set of items in which gluten is expected to be found - grains. Since we are not to rely on outside information in solving Critical Reasoning questions, should we not infer that gluten is found only in grains? Of course the stimulus lacks "only" but it explicitly states the set of items in which gluten is found. Should it not be that the information given in the stimulus, the way it is presented, be treated as the definitive source of information on gluten as far as the problem is concerned?

[uae918]

This is about options (D).

The stimulus says "...gluten, a protein found in wheat, barley, and certain other grains."

Option (D) : Gluten is found only in grains.

Common sense tells me that option (D) is a slightly far fetched claim owing to the use of "only".

However, it is possible that gluten is found in other items as well but there is nothing in the stimulus to suggest that. In fact the stimulus explicitly states the set of items in which gluten is expected to be found - grains. Since we are not to rely on outside information in solving Critical Reasoning questions, should we not infer that gluten is found only in grains? Of course the stimulus lacks "only" but it explicitly states the set of items in which gluten is found. Should it not be that the information given in the stimulus, the way it is presented, be treated as the definitive source of information on gluten as far as the problem is concerned?

I have the same question. Can an expert share some insight on this?

[Sage Pearce-Higgins]

You correctly point out that the passage doesn't include the word 'only'. Sure, it tells us that gluten is found in grains, but from that we can't infer that it is found only in grains. It may be found in other things too. Therefore answer D is incorrect.

I would assert that there's no outside information being used here: it's an example of saying that "X contains Y". Does that imply that "only X contains Y"? Certainly not. Z could also contain Y.