I can narrow this down to (A) or (E). Both look good. But I am not convinced by the OG explanation why (A) is better. Only thing I can see is that (A) is more specific than (E). But then (E) shows that the observations of the study are actually representative of yearly patterns. Moreover, (A) seems to repeat at least some info from the stimulus, this can be inferred anyways. Can you please elaborate?

Hi Rahul, in order for us to answer as many questions as possible, we are asking folks to post the entire question and answer choices so we don't have to look it up and other users can study from the same material. Thanks in advance.

_________________
Emily Sledge
Instructor
ManhattanGMAT

Hi Emily, I appreciate the need to post the entire question from the OGs, but the thing is that I have doubts in several OG ques esp SCs, and most of the doubts are in the explanations. Putting up the entire questions and explanations would be really cumbersome as I am struggling for time before my deadline. I would really appreciate if you could answer the ques by the no# itself. Hope you can cater to this request.

Studies have shown that elderly people who practice a religion are much more likely to die immediately after an important religious holiday period that immediately before one. Researchers have concluded that the will to live can prolong life, at least for short periods of time.

Which of the following, if true, would strengthen the researchers' conclusion?
(A) Elderly people who practice a religion are less likely to die immediately before or during an important religious holiday than at any other time of the year.
(E) Many religions have important holidays in the spring and fall, seasons with the lowest death rates for elderly people.

Rahul,

To distinguish between answers, it is important to pay close attention to the specific words that both the argument and the answer choices use. In this case, the conclusion is Researchers have concluded that the will to live can prolong life, at least for short periods of time. The only premise (fact) upon which this conclusion rests is that Studies have shown that elderly people who practice a religion are much more likely to die immediately after an important religious holiday period that immediately before one

The argument at hand concerns only religious people and their death rates around important religious holidays. Thus answer choice A, the better answer, definitely strengthens the conclusion, as it supports the idea that these individuals demonstrate a "will to live" as important religious holidays approach.

To me, answer choice E is too broad and is also too disconnect from the argument. The argument is about death rates of religious people; answer choice E relates to elderly people in general. Moreover, instead of specifying times during or immediately before or after religious holidays, answer choice E refers to an entire half of the year (2 out of the 4 seasons). Too many other factors could affect death rates during such a broad time frame.

Hope that helps!
-dan

Hi Dan, thanx for the reply.

But I dont understand how (A) demonstrates "the will to live" on behalf of elderly people.
Premise in the ques related deaths before and after religious holidays.
(A) relates deaths before/during religious holidays and rest of the year - nothing about will to live is mentioned.
(E) relates deaths during spring/fall when a lot a religious holidays occur to rest of the year.

And (E) talks about elderly people and their relation to religious holidays, so its not like elderly people in general. I felt that (E) was infact generalizing the stats for deaths to a good part of the year and tus strengthening e argument. I dunno. Still confused.

Hi Rahul,

Here's how I look at it: the argument is that people can hang on to life short-term, waiting until after a certain event to die (a paraphrase, admittedly). Proof offered is that some people are more likely to die after certain events than before the events. So the premise focuses on this before-event/after-event difference.

(A) addresses the difference directly, stating that not only are they less likely to die before-event than after-event, but also are less likely to die before-event than at non-event times.

(E) just talks about the frequency of the events at certain times of year. This fails to address the before-event/after-event difference, and thus does not strengthen the claim that the event itself makes some difference in the timing of death.

_________________
Emily Sledge
Instructor
ManhattanGMAT