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VerbalCritical Reasoning

Free GMAT Critical Reasoning Practice Question

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Riverside Elementary added a daily twenty-minute silent reading period last fall. Since then, the school librarian reports that book checkouts have risen sharply, and reading test scores at the school improved over the previous year. The principal says the new reading period is responsible for these gains and plans to keep it permanently.

Which of the following best expresses the main conclusion of the principal's argument?

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Answer & Explanation

Correct answer

E

Find the claim the reported facts are marshaled to support. The librarian's checkout figures and the improved test scores are observations; the principal then draws a causal claim from them.

That causal claim, that the new reading period is responsible for the gains, is the main conclusion, choice E. The plan to keep it permanently follows from that conclusion.

A generalizes to every school, overstating the scope; the principal concludes only about Riverside. B, the rising checkouts, is one of the reported gains used as evidence, not the claim that the reading period caused them. C, the improved scores, is another reported result offered as support, a premise. D, that the school added the reading period, is the setup describing the change, not the point being argued.