VerbalCritical Reasoning

Free GMAT Critical Reasoning Practice Question

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A regional grocery chain enforces a simple rule: every store that meets the chain's monthly waste-reduction target is listed in the company newsletter. The Fairview store was not listed in last month's newsletter. The district manager therefore concludes that the Fairview store did not meet the waste-reduction target last month.

The reasoning above is most similar in structure to which of the following?

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Answer & Explanation

Correct answer

C

Parallel reasoning. Strip the topic and write the original as a skeleton. Rule: if a store meets the target, then it is listed. Fact: the Fairview store was not listed. Conclusion: so the Fairview store did not meet the target. The valid move is denying the result to rule out the condition: every A leads to B; this case lacks B; therefore this case lacks A. The credited answer must reproduce this exact skeleton, regardless of subject matter.

(C) is correct. Rule: if an employee finishes the safety course, then the employee gets a permit. Fact: Reyes has no permit. Conclusion: so Reyes did not finish the course. This is the same skeleton, every A leads to B, no B here, therefore no A, so it is the structural twin even though the topic shifted from a grocery newsletter to a parking permit.

(A) shares the topic feel of access and credentials but uses a different move: it argues that sharing one feature with a group (carrying a permit) makes someone a member of the group. That is invalid and is not the original's form. It is the topic-match trap, attractive to anyone matching subject matter instead of structure.

(B) keeps the rule but runs it backward: it starts from having the permit and concludes the course was finished. The original starts from the missing result, not from having the result, and a permit could come from another source, so this reverses the direction.

(D) looks word-for-word like the original conclusion but weakens the rule from every to most. Under most, some who finished may lack a permit, so a missing permit no longer proves the course was not finished. One quantifier change breaks the deduction.

(E) negates the wrong part: it denies the condition (did not finish) and concludes the result is absent (no permit). The rule says nothing about people who did not finish, who could still get a permit another way, so this does not follow. It mirrors the original only on the surface.