Question: The earth's resources are being depleted much too fast. To correct this, the United States must keep its resource consumption at present levels for many years to come.

The argument above depends on which of the following assumptions?

(A) Per capita resource consumption in the United States is at an all-time high.
(B) The United States wastes resources.
(C) The United States uses more resources than any other country.
(D) The United States imports most of the resources it uses.
(E) Curbing U.S. resource consumption will significantly retard world resource depletion.

Answer: E
Explanation:

The GMAT's critical reasoning portion evaluates students' analytical and critical thinking skills. To give a coherent response, the applicant needs to possess excellent cognitive skills..
Pre thinking:
The resources of the earth are being exhausted far too quickly. The United States must maintain its resource use at current levels for many years to come in order to fix this.
Premise: The resources of the earth are being exhausted far too quickly.
Conclusion: The United States must maintain its resource use at current levels for many years to come in order to fix this.

Let's look at each option separately.

E: Inaccurate
E is incorrect. It is not relevant to the given text. Not only the consumption of USA is contributing to the depletion of resources, rather, all countries contribute to it. It is a false claim.

A: Correct
It is the correct choice. A was approaching, but even though per capita resource use is not at an all-time high, it might nonetheless be concerning and harmful to earthly resources. Thus, denying A does not invalidate the argument.

B: Inaccurate
Option B is incorrect because not only the USA wastes resources. It cannot be claimed. Every country wastes resources to some extent.

C: Inaccurate
It is an incorrect answer. According to this reasoning, punishing is never appropriate since it has no deterrent effect.

D: Inaccurate
This choice is irrelevant and incorrect. Whether the USA imports the resources or not is an irrelevant topic when it is the exhaustion of resources that matters.

“The earth's resources are being depleted much too fast. To correct this, the United States must keep its resource” – 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. GMAT verbal practice papers are considered very helpful material for preparation.

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