Lesson 6: Impact of Evidences

1. Join XYZ classroom coaching for the CLAT. Last year, 70/100 top rankers were XYZ students.

Evaluate how each of the following additional evidences (if true) impact the argument given above.
Indicate whether each of the following strengthens (S) or weakens (W) the argument or whether it
is irrelevant (I) to the argument
A. XYZ could not provide any proof that the 70 students were bona fide students of the institute.
B. Out of the 70 top rankers, 60 were test series students of XYZ.
C. Each of the 70 students gave written testimony that XYZ’s classroom coaching help them
crack the test.
D. In the each of the last 10 years, almost 70/100 of the top rankers were XYZ students.
E. Classroom coaching is does not in itself help in cracking the CLAT; the student should also be
highly motivated.
F. XYZ coaching institute has 10 full-time faculty members

2. If the city wants round-the-clock power, the citizens will have to pay. That was the gist of Chief
Minister Sheila Dikshit's explanation on Monday about the recent steep hike in power tariffs.
Pointing to "high cost" of power generation, Ms. Dikshit said people should not overlook the quality
of power supply in Delhi while talking about the cost. "We do not want Delhi to be like the remaining
cities in the National Capital Region such as Noida, Gurgaon and Ghaziabad where because of
erratic power supply people spend anywhere from Rs.12 to Rs.15 per unit on procuring power."
She said the cost of power production has also gone up significantly from Rs.2.86 per unit in 2005
to over Rs.5 per unit now on account of increase in the cost of fuel.

Which of the following if true weakens the argument above?

(a) Delhi has always had the highest rate of electricity loss due to inefficiencies in the distribution
process and the cost of that is borne by consumers.
(a) In recent years, rate of electricity theft has been the highest in Delhi as compared to other cities
in the National Capital Region and is increasing continuously.
(c) Delhi has been experiencing more power cuts in the recent past than it ever did.
(d) Gurgaon has round the clock privatized power supply.

Directions for questions 3 to 4: In each of the following questions, a statement is followed by a question.
Choose the option that best answers the question.

3. Statement: ‘Athletes are strong.’

Which of the following statements, if true, would show that the above statement is false?
(a) Bikers are not athletes but they are strong.
(b) Marathon runners are athletes but are not strong.
(c) Truckers are athletic but not strong.
(d) Macedonians are neither athletes nor strong.

Lesson 6: Impact of Evidences Page 1

4. Statement: ‘Students are noisy.’

Which of the following statements, if true, would show that the above statement is false?
(a) Ramesh is noisy but he is not a student.
(b) Ramesh is noisy and he is a student.
(c) Ramesh is not noisy but he is a student.
(d) Ramesh is not noisy and he is not a student.

Directions for questions 5 to 7: In each of the following questions, a paragraph is followed by a question.
Answer the question based on the information given in the paragraph.

5. Too much of a good thing is bad. Doing too much of anything is bad, even if it is work or something
that one enjoys. Spending too much time on the computer may harm one’s health and lead to
fatigue and dry eyes. One’s physical shape may also deteriorate due to lack of exercise and
movement. It’s ok to use the computer for an extended period of time but one should also get
around and move about in between periods of use.

Which of the following statements, if true, strengthens the argument above?

(a) Too much time spent on video gaming or Internet browsing translates into less time socializing
in the real world.
(b) Spending too much time on the computer can cause eye damage, carpal tunnel syndrome and
headaches.
(c) While computers have brought up new opportunities in our lives, using them too much is bad.
(d) Both (a) and (b)

6. Since children are the future of our neighborhoods, cities, countries and world, it is important that
they are raised well. When in due course of time children have children of their own, it is natural
that they will need some guidance. And, while we hope that their parents will give them some of
that needed guidance, parenting classes would help to better cement their ability to provide a good
childhood for their children. When this is done, the parents, their children, and the society in
general will benefit.

Which of the following statements does not strengthen the argument above?
(a) All parents benefit from parenting and prenatal classes.
(b) Parenting classes would help minors and teen parents, who have very little knowledge about
raising children.
(c) Raising kids is a very rewarding experience which should be nothing less than perfect.
(d) The act of parenting involves a lot of unique and tricky situations that warrant expert guidance.

7. It is a common myth that home-educated students are socially under developed. Actually, home-
educated students are provided with many opportunities to interact with kids and adults of all ages.
Many of these opportunities come through volunteer work and employment and participation in
academic and sports related programs. Some people voice a concern over whether or not home-
educated students get to deal with real life situations. These students are confronted with the

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 same challenges and peer pressure as any other student in a public or private institution. Perhaps
one of the advantages of home-education is that students have a strong support system at home
to discuss and confront the social issues that most of them deal with. Home-educated students
enter the college world and job market with both academic and social success.

Which of the following, if true, does not weaken the argument above?
(a) Children who are home-schooled do not enjoy the social experiences and growth associated
with being in a diverse environment such as a school.
(b) The effectiveness of home schooling ultimately depends on how parents administer home
education.
(c) The basic purpose of schooling is to make children more creative and apt at dealing with life,
while home-schooling only feeds bookish knowledge in their minds.
(d) Most home-schooled students have big gaps in comparison to literacy and mathematical skills
of regular students.

8. Although Frank J. Schwartz, shark biologist with the University of North Carolina, says there’s too
much natural variability in weather cycles to blame the recent increase in humans being attacked
by sharks, on global warming. Burgess says the link is plausible.

Which of the following, if true, can be used to strengthen Burgess’s argument?

(a) The recent spate of warmer temperatures in North Carolina is likely to bring more sharks to the
beaches that attack the unsuspecting public who are also attracted to the beaches in the hot
weather.
(b) During summer season, baby sharks tend to move towards the beaches and their violent natures
leads them to attack the human beings.
(c) The inquisitiveness of sharks has been piqued by the addition of new species in their habitat,
due to climate changes, which has resulted in more attacks.
(d) More marine biologists are venturing into deep sea, which is infested by sharks, in order to
research on the effects of global warming on aquatic life.

9. Problems of congestion on the roads can be tackled in a cost-effective manner by providing effective
public transport system within the cities. A successful plan in this direction would reduce the
number of private vehicles on the roads and would cost less than the costs involved in building fly
overs to deal with the ever-expanding number of vehicles on the roads.

Which of the following, if true, can be used to strengthen the above argument?
(a) A large number of cars on the roads belong to people who are traveling from one city to the other.
(b) More than half of the traffic on roads during peak hours belongs to office goers who travel at the
same time every day and to the same destination. Such commuters would welcome a regular
public transport system.
(c) An effective public transport system would entail a lot of spending in buying a new fleet of buses
and their maintenance.
(d) Many jobs are coming up on the suburbs, making it necessary for people to travel to outside the
city to reach their workplace.

Lesson 6: Impact of Evidences Page 3

10. Government has recently imposed restrictions on import of raw material for garments. These
restrictions are going to hit only the small manufacturers of garments. The bigger ones are going to
benefit at their cost by taking away business from them.

If the following are true, which of them weakens the claim made above?
(a) Many other countries will follow suit and follow similar restrictions.
(b) Both, the small and the big manufacturers of garments, specialize in different kinds of products
and hence none can benefit from the loss of the other.
(c) The small manufacturers already produce gods that are substandard.
(d) If the quality of the product is good, consumers will buy them even if the cost goes up after the
restrictions.

11. All the children who took special coaching for a month before their examination did well in the
examinations. Thus the special attention these students got during the coaching had really helped
them.

Which of the following, if true, would weaken the above claim?

(a) The students who did well after the coaching were doing well even before they started taking the
coaching.
(b) None of the students who did not take the coaching did as well as those who took the coaching.
(c) The children who took the coaching had to work very hard.
(d) The results of these children deteriorated as soon as the coaching was stopped.

12. Global warming is a serious concern and for the most part is believed to occur as the result of
human activity. Now, many scientists have suggested that other factors are responsible for rising
temperatures, such as natural changes in the number and size of volcanic eruptions. Such phenomena
are referred to as climate forcings. This would mean that humans are not responsible for the increase
in temperature over the last 140 years.

Which of the following would most seriously weaken the conclusion reached by the author?
(a) Natural changes in volcanic activity over the last 140 years can barely account for one-third of
the rise in temperature over the same period.
(b) Some of the critics of the global warming theory also suggest that even if the earth is warming it
is not a cause for alarm.
(c) Volcanic activity on earth has been increasing, with many new volcanoes becoming active in the
last 140 years.
(d) Satellites, which measure temperatures all over the world, show no real trend in any direction; in
fact, in recent decades, they show a global cooling.

13. Women in particular benefit from single-sex education; research shows that they participate more
in class, develop much higher self-esteem, score higher in aptitude tests, are more likely to choose
‘male’ disciplines, such as science, in college, and are more successful in their careers. In the USA
Who’s Who, graduates of women’s colleges outnumber all other women; there are only approximately
50 women’s colleges left in the States today. Elizabeth Tidball, who conducted the Who’s Who
research, also later concluded that women’s colleges produced ‘more than their fair share who went
on to medical school or received doctorates in the natural or life sciences’, typically male fields.

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 Which of the following statements represents a flaw in the given argument?
(a) Boys and girls both thrive when the elements of good education are present - elements like
smaller classes, focused academic curriculum and gender-neutral instruction.
(b) An analysis of data from the National Survey for Student Engagement shows that women at
women's colleges rate their educational experience higher than women at coeducational schools.
(c) According to one study, just 3 percent of college-bound women will even consider attending a
women's college.
(d) Research made the mistake of not controlling for other characteristics, namely possible socio-
economic privileges of those at women’s colleges.

14. In 1990, a rare, 78-year old Mauritian stamp was auctioned off for $ 20,000. Another such stamp is
owned by Asterix Gatsby, who plans to auction it next week. It is speculated that Gatsby’s stamp
will fetch a price of over $50,000.

Which of the following, if true, would most weaken the conclusion drawn above?
(a) Since 1990, the average price of rare stamps has increased by over 150 percent.
(b) In the entire world, there are only four stamps like the one in question.
(c) Since 1990, the consumer price index has risen by over 150 percent.
(d) In 1996, a previously unknown cache of fifty stamps, just like the one in question, was found.

15. Vegetables have more nutritional value than Fruits. But since Beans have more nutritional value than
Greens, it follows that Vegetables have more nutritional value than Greens.

Any of the following statements, if introduced into the argument as an additional premise, would
make the argument above logically correct EXCEPT:
(a) Beans have more nutritional value than Vegetables.
(b) Fruits have more nutritional value than Greens.
(c) Fruits have more nutritional value than Beans.
(d) Fruits and Beans have the same nutritional value.

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