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The US government has recently taken an initiative to collect and publish information on the salaries of graduating students from colleges. The salaries of the students in their first year after graduation will be published for all colleges and subject fields the colleges offer. The idea is to help the students make more informed choices about the college and the field that they choose. While the intentions are good, the results might just be the opposite. Students who pick their field based primarily on post-graduation salaries, as opposed to passion for a field, will, in all likelihood, struggle in both school and career. 
Which of the following options would help most to evaluate the given argument?
  • a)
    What is the number of colleges that will be covered by the government initiative?
  • b)
    Currently, what proportion of students who struggle in college also struggle in their careers?
  • c)
    Do some students currently pick their subject fields based on their passion?
  • d)
    Are there currently any good websites providing average salaries data for the students?
  • e)
    How will the government ensure that the data published on the salaries of the students is not biased against certain colleges?
Correct answer is option 'C'. Can you explain this answer?
Verified Answer
The US government has recently taken an initiative to collect and publ...
The US government has recently taken an initiative to collect and publish information on the salaries of graduating students from colleges. The salaries of the students in their first year after graduation will be published for all colleges and subject fields the colleges offer. The idea is to help the students make more informed choices about the college and the field that they choose. While the intentions are good, the results might just be the opposite. Students who pick their field based primarily on post-graduation salaries, as opposed to passion for a field, will, in all likelihood, struggle in both school and career. 
Which of the following options would help most to evaluate the given argument?
Argument Analysis
 
 
Pre-Thinking
Conclusion Clarification
The conclusion states that while the intentions of the government are good, the results might just be the opposite. The intention here is helping students in making an informed choice while the expected result by the author is opposite to it, i.e. the author expects that students are quite likely to struggle in school as well as career because they will choose a field of study based primarily on salary considerations instead of interest/passion.
Pre-Thinking Approach
In order to evaluate the linkage, we’ll pre think assumptions by thinking of conditions that will decrease our belief in the conclusion. The assumptions then will be that these conditions don’t exist. To do so, let’s look at linkage 1 and understand the conditions under which it doesn’t hold. 
Linkage#1 – (ref. logical structure)
  • Falsification Condition:  What if currently, students’ decisions about the college they want to attend and their respective subject fields are based primarily on the post-graduation salary? In such a case, the plan will not have any adverse effect on the current situation of the students and the author will not be able to conclude that the result might be opposite (of the good intentions). . Thus, the linkage will not hold.
  • Assumption: At least some students currently don’t choose a field based primarily on salary considerations instead of their passions.
An answer choice that evaluates any of the fundamental assumptions made by the author will be the correct choice. With this pre-thinking in mind, let’s evaluate the answer choices.
Answer Choices
A
What is the number of colleges that will be covered by the government initiative?
Incorrect – Irrelevant
The passage says that the salaries of the graduating students will be published for all colleges and subject fields the colleges offer. As all the US colleges have been covered, the number of colleges is irrelevant to the evaluation
B
Currently, what proportion of students who struggle in college also struggle in their careers?
Incorrect – Irrelevant
The proportion of students in this category is not important. What’s important is how students are currently making their choices about the college they want to attend and the field they want to study.
C
Do some students currently pick their subject fields based on their passion?
Correct
This choice is written along the lines of our pre-thinking. If the answer to the question is yes, the argument is strengthened. Otherwise, it is weakened.
D
Are there currently any good websites providing average salaries data for the students?
Incorrect – Irrelevant
Even if there are websites doing so, there is no information given to believe that the students are accessing these websites currently or that they are already using such information to make decisions on the stated issues.
E
How will the government ensure that the data published on the salaries of the students is not biased against certain colleges?
Incorrect – Irrelevant
The method employed to ensure that the data is not biased will not help us evaluate the author’s argument, which is based on the possible effect of any such data could have on the mindset of the students and their future. Also, given the contents of the passage, there is no way to evaluate the answer yielded by this question.
 
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Directions: Read the passage carefully and answer the question as follow.Shortly after September 11, 2001, the United States began requesting additional financial information about persons of interest by subpoenaing records located at the SWIFT banking consortium. SWIFT, which routes trillions of dollars a day, faced an ethical dilemma: fight the subpoenas in order to protect member privacy and the groups reputation for the highest level of confidentiality, or, comply and provide information about thousands of financial communications in the hope that lives will be saved. SWIFT decided to comply in secret, but in late June 2006, four major U.S. newspapers disclosed SWIFTs compliance. This sparked a heated public debate over the ethics of SWIFTs decision to reveal ostensibly confidential financial communications.Analyzing the situation in hindsight, three ethical justifications existed for not complying with the Treasury Departments requests. First, SWIFT needed to uphold its long-standing values of confidentiality, non-disclosure, and institutional trust. The second ethical reason against SWIFTs involvement came with inadequate government oversight as the Treasury Department failed to construct necessary safeguards to ensure the privacy of the data. Third, international law must be upheld and one could argue quite strongly that the governments use of data breached some parts of international law.Although SWIFT executives undoubtedly considered the aforementioned reasons for rejecting the governments subpoena, three ethical justifications for complying existed. First, it could be argued that the program was legal because the United States government possesses the authority to subpoena records stored within its territory and SWIFT maintained many of its records in Virginia. Second, it is entirely possible that complying with the governments subpoena thwarted another catastrophic terrorist attack that would have cost lives and dollars. Third, cooperating with the government did not explicitly violate any SWIFT policies due to the presence of a valid subpoena. However, the extent of cooperation certainly surprised many financial institutions and sparked some outrage and debate within the financial community.While SWIFT had compelling arguments both for agreeing and refusing to cooperate with the U.S. government program, even in hindsight, it is impossible to judge with certitude the wisdom and ethics of SWIFTs decision to cooperate as we still lack answers to important questions such as: what information did the government want? What promises did the government make about data confidentially? What, if any, potentially impending threats did the government present to justify its need for data?Q.Inferring from the passage, which of the following constituted an ethical justification for SWIFT complying with the government?

Directions: Read the passage carefully and answer the question as follow.Shortly after September 11, 2001, the United States began requesting additional financial information about persons of interest by subpoenaing records located at the SWIFT banking consortium. SWIFT, which routes trillions of dollars a day, faced an ethical dilemma: fight the subpoenas in order to protect member privacy and the groups reputation for the highest level of confidentiality, or, comply and provide information about thousands of financial communications in the hope that lives will be saved. SWIFT decided to comply in secret, but in late June 2006, four major U.S. newspapers disclosed SWIFTs compliance. This sparked a heated public debate over the ethics of SWIFTs decision to reveal ostensibly confidential financial communications.Analyzing the situation in hindsight, three ethical justifications existed for not complying with the Treasury Departments requests. First, SWIFT needed to uphold its long-standing values of confidentiality, non-disclosure, and institutional trust. The second ethical reason against SWIFTs involvement came with inadequate government oversight as the Treasury Department failed to construct necessary safeguards to ensure the privacy of the data. Third, international law must be upheld and one could argue quite strongly that the governments use of data breached some parts of international law.Although SWIFT executives undoubtedly considered the aforementioned reasons for rejecting the governments subpoena, three ethical justifications for complying existed. First, it could be argued that the program was legal because the United States government possesses the authority to subpoena records stored within its territory and SWIFT maintained many of its records in Virginia. Second, it is entirely possible that complying with the governments subpoena thwarted another catastrophic terrorist attack that would have cost lives and dollars. Third, cooperating with the government did not explicitly violate any SWIFT policies due to the presence of a valid subpoena. However, the extent of cooperation certainly surprised many financial institutions and sparked some outrage and debate within the financial community.While SWIFT had compelling arguments both for agreeing and refusing to cooperate with the U.S. government program, even in hindsight, it is impossible to judge with certitude the wisdom and ethics of SWIFTs decision to cooperate as we still lack answers to important questions such as: what information did the government want? What promises did the government make about data confidentially? What, if any, potentially impending threats did the government present to justify its need for data?Q.Which of the following can be inferred from the passage?

Directions: Read the passage carefully and answer the question as follow.Shortly after September 11, 2001, the United States began requesting additional financial information about persons of interest by subpoenaing records located at the SWIFT banking consortium. SWIFT, which routes trillions of dollars a day, faced an ethical dilemma: fight the subpoenas in order to protect member privacy and the groups reputation for the highest level of confidentiality, or, comply and provide information about thousands of financial communications in the hope that lives will be saved. SWIFT decided to comply in secret, but in late June 2006, four major U.S. newspapers disclosed SWIFTs compliance. This sparked a heated public debate over the ethics of SWIFTs decision to reveal ostensibly confidential financial communications.Analyzing the situation in hindsight, three ethical justifications existed for not complying with the Treasury Departments requests. First, SWIFT needed to uphold its long-standing values of confidentiality, non-disclosure, and institutional trust. The second ethical reason against SWIFTs involvement came with inadequate government oversight as the Treasury Department failed to construct necessary safeguards to ensure the privacy of the data. Third, international law must be upheld and one could argue quite strongly that the governments use of data breached some parts of international law.Although SWIFT executives undoubtedly considered the aforementioned reasons for rejecting the governments subpoena, three ethical justifications for complying existed. First, it could be argued that the program was legal because the United States government possesses the authority to subpoena records stored within its territory and SWIFT maintained many of its records in Virginia. Second, it is entirely possible that complying with the governments subpoena thwarted another catastrophic terrorist attack that would have cost lives and dollars. Third, cooperating with the government did not explicitly violate any SWIFT policies due to the presence of a valid subpoena. However, the extent of cooperation certainly surprised many financial institutions and sparked some outrage and debate within the financial community.While SWIFT had compelling arguments both for agreeing and refusing to cooperate with the U.S. government program, even in hindsight, it is impossible to judge with certitude the wisdom and ethics of SWIFTs decision to cooperate as we still lack answers to important questions such as: what information did the government want? What promises did the government make about data confidentially? What, if any, potentially impending threats did the government present to justify its need for data?Q.The author most likely used the word "ostensibly" near the end of the first paragraph to emphasize that

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The US government has recently taken an initiative to collect and publish information on the salaries of graduating students from colleges. The salaries of the students in their first year after graduation will be published for all colleges and subject fields the colleges offer. The idea is to help the students make more informed choices about the college and the field that they choose. While the intentions are good, the results might just be the opposite. Students who pick their field based primarily on post-graduation salaries, as opposed to passion for a field, will, in all likelihood, struggle in both school and career.Which of the following options would help most to evaluate the given argument?a)What is the number of colleges that will be covered by the government initiative?b)Currently, what proportion of students who struggle in college also struggle in their careers?c)Do some students currently pick their subject fields based on their passion?d)Are there currently any good websites providing average salaries data for the students?e)How will the government ensure that the data published on the salaries of the students is not biased against certain colleges?Correct answer is option 'C'. Can you explain this answer?
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The US government has recently taken an initiative to collect and publish information on the salaries of graduating students from colleges. The salaries of the students in their first year after graduation will be published for all colleges and subject fields the colleges offer. The idea is to help the students make more informed choices about the college and the field that they choose. While the intentions are good, the results might just be the opposite. Students who pick their field based primarily on post-graduation salaries, as opposed to passion for a field, will, in all likelihood, struggle in both school and career.Which of the following options would help most to evaluate the given argument?a)What is the number of colleges that will be covered by the government initiative?b)Currently, what proportion of students who struggle in college also struggle in their careers?c)Do some students currently pick their subject fields based on their passion?d)Are there currently any good websites providing average salaries data for the students?e)How will the government ensure that the data published on the salaries of the students is not biased against certain colleges?Correct answer is option 'C'. Can you explain this answer? for GMAT 2024 is part of GMAT preparation. The Question and answers have been prepared according to the GMAT exam syllabus. Information about The US government has recently taken an initiative to collect and publish information on the salaries of graduating students from colleges. The salaries of the students in their first year after graduation will be published for all colleges and subject fields the colleges offer. The idea is to help the students make more informed choices about the college and the field that they choose. While the intentions are good, the results might just be the opposite. Students who pick their field based primarily on post-graduation salaries, as opposed to passion for a field, will, in all likelihood, struggle in both school and career.Which of the following options would help most to evaluate the given argument?a)What is the number of colleges that will be covered by the government initiative?b)Currently, what proportion of students who struggle in college also struggle in their careers?c)Do some students currently pick their subject fields based on their passion?d)Are there currently any good websites providing average salaries data for the students?e)How will the government ensure that the data published on the salaries of the students is not biased against certain colleges?Correct answer is option 'C'. Can you explain this answer? covers all topics & solutions for GMAT 2024 Exam. Find important definitions, questions, meanings, examples, exercises and tests below for The US government has recently taken an initiative to collect and publish information on the salaries of graduating students from colleges. The salaries of the students in their first year after graduation will be published for all colleges and subject fields the colleges offer. The idea is to help the students make more informed choices about the college and the field that they choose. While the intentions are good, the results might just be the opposite. Students who pick their field based primarily on post-graduation salaries, as opposed to passion for a field, will, in all likelihood, struggle in both school and career.Which of the following options would help most to evaluate the given argument?a)What is the number of colleges that will be covered by the government initiative?b)Currently, what proportion of students who struggle in college also struggle in their careers?c)Do some students currently pick their subject fields based on their passion?d)Are there currently any good websites providing average salaries data for the students?e)How will the government ensure that the data published on the salaries of the students is not biased against certain colleges?Correct answer is option 'C'. Can you explain this answer?.
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Students who pick their field based primarily on post-graduation salaries, as opposed to passion for a field, will, in all likelihood, struggle in both school and career.Which of the following options would help most to evaluate the given argument?a)What is the number of colleges that will be covered by the government initiative?b)Currently, what proportion of students who struggle in college also struggle in their careers?c)Do some students currently pick their subject fields based on their passion?d)Are there currently any good websites providing average salaries data for the students?e)How will the government ensure that the data published on the salaries of the students is not biased against certain colleges?Correct answer is option 'C'. Can you explain this answer?, a detailed solution for The US government has recently taken an initiative to collect and publish information on the salaries of graduating students from colleges. 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Students who pick their field based primarily on post-graduation salaries, as opposed to passion for a field, will, in all likelihood, struggle in both school and career.Which of the following options would help most to evaluate the given argument?a)What is the number of colleges that will be covered by the government initiative?b)Currently, what proportion of students who struggle in college also struggle in their careers?c)Do some students currently pick their subject fields based on their passion?d)Are there currently any good websites providing average salaries data for the students?e)How will the government ensure that the data published on the salaries of the students is not biased against certain colleges?Correct answer is option 'C'. Can you explain this answer? has been provided alongside types of The US government has recently taken an initiative to collect and publish information on the salaries of graduating students from colleges. 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Students who pick their field based primarily on post-graduation salaries, as opposed to passion for a field, will, in all likelihood, struggle in both school and career.Which of the following options would help most to evaluate the given argument?a)What is the number of colleges that will be covered by the government initiative?b)Currently, what proportion of students who struggle in college also struggle in their careers?c)Do some students currently pick their subject fields based on their passion?d)Are there currently any good websites providing average salaries data for the students?e)How will the government ensure that the data published on the salaries of the students is not biased against certain colleges?Correct answer is option 'C'. Can you explain this answer? theory, EduRev gives you an ample number of questions to practice The US government has recently taken an initiative to collect and publish information on the salaries of graduating students from colleges. The salaries of the students in their first year after graduation will be published for all colleges and subject fields the colleges offer. The idea is to help the students make more informed choices about the college and the field that they choose. While the intentions are good, the results might just be the opposite. Students who pick their field based primarily on post-graduation salaries, as opposed to passion for a field, will, in all likelihood, struggle in both school and career.Which of the following options would help most to evaluate the given argument?a)What is the number of colleges that will be covered by the government initiative?b)Currently, what proportion of students who struggle in college also struggle in their careers?c)Do some students currently pick their subject fields based on their passion?d)Are there currently any good websites providing average salaries data for the students?e)How will the government ensure that the data published on the salaries of the students is not biased against certain colleges?Correct answer is option 'C'. Can you explain this answer? tests, examples and also practice GMAT tests.
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