VerbalCritical Reasoning

Free GMAT Critical Reasoning Practice Question

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For the Halvorsen Museum to host the touring Ming ceramics exhibition next spring, it must first secure the climate-controlled gallery on its third floor, because the exhibition's owners will lend the pieces only to a venue that has such a gallery. But securing that gallery requires completing the building's humidity-control retrofit, and the contractor has confirmed that the retrofit cannot be finished before next autumn. So the Halvorsen Museum will not host the Ming ceramics exhibition next spring.

The reasoning in which of the following arguments most closely parallels the reasoning in the argument above?

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Answer & Explanation

Correct answer

B

Abstract the argument's logical form, then match the choice with the same form regardless of topic. Strip the surface from the original and you get a two-link chain of necessary conditions ending in an impossibility. To reach the goal G (host the exhibition next spring), the museum needs X (secure the gallery); X is necessary because the owners lend 'only to a venue that has such a gallery.' To get X, the museum needs Y (finish the retrofit); Y is necessary because securing the gallery 'requires completing the retrofit.' But Y is impossible on time (the retrofit cannot be done before autumn). Therefore G cannot happen. The signature has four parts: (1) two chained necessary conditions, G needs X and X needs Y; (2) the block falls on the second link, Y; (3) the impossibility is absolute, not merely likely; (4) the conclusion is a definite negative.

(B) reproduces all four. Winning the contract (G) requires a depot in the zone (X, necessary: awarded 'only to a firm with a depot there'); the depot requires a zoning permit (Y, necessary: 'opening that depot requires approval'); the permit is impossible this quarter (the board will issue none); therefore the firm will not win. Same two-link necessary-condition chain, same absolute block on the second link, same definite negative conclusion. (B) is correct.

Why the others only look parallel. A fast reader can eliminate two choices on direction alone: (A) ends in a positive prediction ('will expand') and (D) ends in a hedged 'most likely will,' while the original ends in a flat 'will not,' so neither can match. That screen leaves (B), (C), and (E), all of which end in a definite negative, and this is where the real discrimination lives. (C) is a valid-looking argument but has only one necessary condition blocked (the orchestra-pit repair); it lacks the second link that makes the original a chain, so it parallels a simpler structure. (E) denies a sufficient condition ('if it submits by March, it will qualify') and concludes failure; because submitting by March is only stated as enough, not as required, failing to do it does not force the negative conclusion, a different and weaker move than the original's necessary-condition reasoning. (A) goes further astray, satisfying its single necessary condition and predicting success, which runs the inference in the reverse direction. Only (B) carries the full two-link necessary-condition chain to a definite negative, so it is the unique match.