RC: After the second World War, unionism in the Japanese

[RonPurewal]

... and thank you.

[NL]

It can be inferred that the author of the passage sees which of the following as the primary advantage to companies in implementing the "OH! NO!" system?
(A) It permitted the foreman to take initiative.
(B) It minimized the effort required to produce automobiles.
(C) It ensured that production costs would be as low as possible.
(D) It allowed the foreman to control the production process.
(E) It required considerable worker empowerment to achieve managers' goals.

OA: C

I still got this question wrong when re-doing it although I read all explanations after getting it wrong last time! (ha)
--> That means the answer may conflict with my belief about how to answer an inference question. C is a could-be-true, not a must-be-true answer. In order to accept C, I have to make a lot of assumptions.

This statement can be a good counter-assumption to reject C:
[quote=”RonPurewal”]
Doing a job with fewer resources will almost always involve more effort, not less effort.[/quote]

--> With fewer resources and more effort, the production costs may be not lower, even higher. Workers may need to spend more time finding solutions or doing some experiments.

So the “rule” that only a must-be-true answer is right for a must-be-true question has some exceptions?
(Of course I agree that a good strategy for answering this question is eliminating answer choices, as Ron said.)

[RonPurewal]

don't complicate the issue. the point is to find what the passage actually says, and then look for what is essentially a re-statement of the same idea(s).

in this case, only one sentence from the reading is relevant:
Because the "OH! NO!" system continually pushed the production process to the verge of breakdown in an effort to find the minimum resource requirement, critics described it as "management by stress."

the only benefit mentioned is "the minimum resource requirement".

so, you need to pick the choice that means essentially the same as (or as close as possible to) "the minimum resource requirement". that is very clearly C. end of story.

[RonPurewal]

also, remember that all of the wrong answers will be completely wrong. if you want black, the choices are going to be black, white, white, white, white, every single time. NO wrong answer will ever be "close to correct".

so... if you think you see "dark gray, white, white, white, white", then you pick "dark gray".

here, A, D, and E have nothing whatsoever to do with "minimum resource requirement", and B is directly opposed to that idea (you need more effort if you have fewer resources). so, those answers are white, white, white, and white.

in choice C, "minimizing resources" and "minimizing costs" are, quite clearly, strongly related ideas. perhaps not completely equivalent, but certainly very well correlated.
the point is that, even if you perceive somewhat of a difference between the two, it doesn't matter-- you're just saying that the choice is "dark gray" rather than "black".
since the other four choices are white, white, white, and white, it's still a clear winner.

[NL]

Nice-colorful analogy, Ron!
Gray/white/white/white/white = could-be-true/wrong/wrong/wrong/wrong, so could-be-true won. Great. At least, I won’t automatically eliminate a not-wrong answer choice for this question type from now on.

But…please don’t end the story here, my problem is that I see 2 gray ones: C&D, although D is brighter than C. D will be true in this case: If the shortage of resource is a reason causing a production problem, then an advantage of using minimum resource is to control the process.
--> Saying this, I don’t mean I want to argue further about this question. I want to find an alternative way (or another criterion) that helps me choose the answer when my eyes see 2 gray choices. This is my common type of mistake in RC.
(I used must-be-true criterion, but in this case, it doesn’t help)

I think a favorite way the makers uses to create difficult RC questions is that passages are full of abstract ideas and answer choices of questions are different interpretations of those ideas, many of them are vague, inducing different ways of thinking. That’s why some very short passages, each has about 7-8 questions, which are not easy to answer, created. Amazing!
So how to quickly choose the right “interpretation” (right answer) of a relating idea a question asks is my concern.

(Your “eyes” are absolutely clearer than mine, so maybe you won’t think about the second “glasses”)

[RonPurewal]

the oh-no system, as described, was a system in which only the founder exercised any real power. everyone else--department managers, foremen, workers--was absolutely powerless to do anything about the repeated diminution of resources.

earlier in the paragraph it's mentioned that foremen had certain powers, but the oh-no system is clearly not an example of those powers.

[NL]

the oh-no system, as described, was a system in which only the founder exercised any real power. everyone else--department managers, foremen, workers--was absolutely powerless to do anything about the repeated diminution of resources.

OH!NO! I failed to recognize the "actor". D has a may-be right action and a wrong actor. Got it. I did complicate the issue…hmm…

Thank you for being patient! (Now I know why you use a lot of “end of story” in recent days.)

[RonPurewal]

well, just remember that "end of story" should happen pretty quickly. i.e., you should never need to go through a long chain of reasoning to answer these questions.

[NL]

Yeah, I used “end of story” and saved 1 minute for each RC passage (with 3 questions). The accuracy is the same as before.

you should never need to go through a long chain of reasoning to answer these questions.

That’s my mind’s problem. It has a habit of analyzing every thing that drops into its attention, even going against obvious truths. So it takes much longer time for me to arrive to something like 2+2=4. When people have gone so far, I still “hey, I need little more time to prepare, man”.

Digression. End of story.

[RonPurewal]

That’s my mind’s problem. It has a habit of analyzing every thing that drops into its attention, even going against obvious truths. So it takes much longer time for me to arrive to something like 2+2=4. When people have gone so far, I still “hey, I need little more time to prepare, man”.

try pretending that you're explaining stuff to someone in an elevator (so that you have to wrap up your explanation by the time you reach the __th floor).
that might help you get to the point faster.

[750plus]

Dear Team,

Can you please explain option B and E for this question -

The author of the passage mentions the "OH! NO!" system primarily in order to
(A) indicate a way in which the United States industry has become more like the Japanese auto industry
(B) challenge a particular misconception about worker empowerment in the Japanese auto industry
(C) illustrate the kinds of problem-solving techniques encouraged by company unions in Japan
(D) suggest an effective way of minimizing production costs in auto manufacturing
(E) provide an example of the responsibilities assumed by a foreman in the Japanese auto industry

[RonPurewal]

all of the wrong answers are discussed in this thread.

• please read the entire thread.

• if something is still unclear about these choices after you've read through the whole thread, then please describe your current understanding:
what do you already understand?
what don't you understand?
why did you think these choices might be correct?
etc.

[750plus]

I got the answer to my question.

Thanks ron. I don't know how I missed reading before posting the question. Anyway )

[RonPurewal]

okay.

[Gaurav@GMAT]

Hi Ron,

How to select answer between B and D for following question when time is really pressing you.

The author of the passage mentions the "OH! NO!" system primarily in order to
(A) indicate a way in which the United States industry has become more like the Japanese auto industry
(B) challenge a particular misconception about worker empowerment in the Japanese auto industry
(C) illustrate the kinds of problem-solving techniques encouraged by company unions in Japan
(D) suggest an effective way of minimizing production costs in auto manufacturing
(E) provide an example of the responsibilities assumed by a foreman in the Japanese auto industry.

Wile solving this question I knew author is criticizing OH!NO! technique, but nothing seemed relevant to me except D. And author is definitely not talking about effectiveness of OH!NO!.
When I reviewed answer choices then I realized assumption about Japanese model empowering production workers at very beginning of second paragraph. In general, when I encounter specifics questions I don't read entire relevant paragraph but only one or two lines of specific details. However, in this case actual core of question is too distance from OH!NO!.


Also I have trivial question about this paragraph. On other forum, I read one folk solved this passage within 4 min and with all correct . Although I don't doubt his ability, but only steaming out of curiosity, Is it possible for even native speaker to solve this passage within 4 min and with all questions right?.