Question: A person’s failure to keep a promise is wrong only if, first, doing so harms the one to whom the promise is made and, second, all of those who discover the failure to keep the promise lose confidence in the person’s ability to keep promises.

Which one of the following judgments most closely conforms to the principle above?

(A) Ann kept her promise to repay Felicia the money she owed her. Further, this convinced everyone who knew Ann that she is trustworthy. Thus, Ann’s keeping her promise was not wrong.
(B) Jonathan took an oath of secrecy concerning the corporation’s technical secrets, but he sold them to a competitor. His action was wrong even though the corporation intended that he leak these secrets to its competitors.
(C) George promised to repay Reiko the money he owed her. However, George was unable to keep his promise to Reiko and as a result, Reiko suffered a serious financial loss. Thus, George’s failure to keep his promise was wrong.
(D) Because he lost his job, Carlo was unable to repay the money he promised to Miriam. However, Miriam did not need this money nor did she lose confidence in Carlo’s ability to keep promises. So, Carlo’s failure to keep his promise to Miriam was not wrong.
(E) Elizabeth promised to return the book she borrowed from Steven within a week. But she was unable to do so because she became acutely ill. Not knowing this, Steven lost confidence in her ability to keep a promise. So, Elizabeth’s failure to return the book to Steven was wrong.

Correct Answer: D

Solution with Explanation:
Explanation:

On the GMAT's critical reasoning portion, analytical and critical thinking abilities are assessed. To answer clearly, a person must possess strong cognitive abilities.

Let’s check the given choices,

A: Incorrect

It is an incorrect choice. Ann honored her commitment to pay Felicia back for the money she owed her. Furthermore, this demonstrated Ann's reliability to everyone who knew her. Therefore, Ann was right to keep her word. not justifying the passage's main point because the creditor's need for money was not emphasized.

B: Incorrect

It is the wrong choice. The technical secrets of the company were subject to an oath of confidentiality taken by Jonathan, yet he sold them to a rival. Even though the company wanted him to reveal these trade secrets to its rivals, his activity was wrong. (It also doesn't support the main point of the passage because the business intended to sell the secret itself.) No trust relationship is developed here, therefore it would have been detrimental to the business anyway)

C: Incorrect

It is an incorrect choice. Reiko was owing money, and George vowed to pay her back. To Reiko's dismay, George was unable to keep his promise, and as a result, Reiko suffered a significant loss of money. George broke his promise, and that was bad. (Since the promise wasn't broken on purpose in this case, we can assume that he didn't willfully cause his creditors' losses, hence doing so is okay)

D: Correct

It is the correct answer. Carlo was unable to fulfill his commitment to Miriam to pay back the money since he lost his job. Miriam didn't require this cash, though, and she didn't lose faith in Carlo's ability to keep his word either. Carlo's failure to honor his pledge to Miriam was therefore acceptable. Although breaking a promise was not his aim, he was compelled to do so by circumstances, so it is not wrong (the broken promise received its explanation)

E: Incorrect

It is an incorrect answer. Steven loaned Elizabeth a book, and she promised to give it back in a week. However, she was unable to do so because of her severe illness. Steven was unaware of this and began to lose faith in her capacity to keep a commitment. Elizabeth made a mistake by not giving Steven the book back.

“A person’s failure to keep a promise is wrong only if, first, doing so” – is a GMAT Critical question. To answer the question, a candidate can either find a piece of evidence that would weaken the argument or have logical flaws in the argument. GMAT critical reasoning tests the logical and analytical skills of the candidates. This topic requires candidates to find the argument's strengths and weaknesses or the logical flaw in the argument. The GMAT CR section contains 10 -13 GMAT critical reasoning questions out of 36 GMAT verbal questions.

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