很纠结，十分纠结，非常纠结，纠结纠结·og的三道题，谢谢

小娟子nana

116
Firms adopting “profit-related-pay” (PRP) contracts pay wages at levels that vary with the firm’s profits. In the metalworking industry last year, firms with PRP contracts in place showed productivity per worker on average 13 percent higher than that of their competitors who used more traditional contracts.
If, on the basis of the evidence above, it is argued that PRP contracts increase worker productivity, which of the following, if true, would most seriously weaken that argument?
(A) Results similar to those cited for the metalworking industry have been found in other industries where PRP contracts are used.
(B) Under PRP contracts costs other than labor costs, such as plant, machinery, and energy, make up an increased proportion of the total cost of each unit of output.
(C) Because introducing PRP contracts greatly changes individual workers’ relationships to the firm, negotiating the introduction of PRP contracts is complex and time consuming.
(D) Many firms in the metalworking industry have modernized production equipment in the last five years, and most of these introduced PRP contracts at the same time.
(E) In firms in the metalworking industry where PRP contracts are in place, the average take-home pay is 15 percent higher than it is in those firms where workers have more traditional contracts.

答案选d。其实我的疑惑和这个链接的疑惑差不多。
http://forum.chasedream.com/GMAT_CR/thread-448283-1-1.html
就是该题的d项，想表达的是很多metalworking这个行业的公司已经升级了本公司的生产工具，而且大多数这些公司也采用了PRP的合共。
那难道competitor没有升级本公司的生产工具吗？如果连competitor也都升级了本公司生产工具，那么d对文章起到support的作用。但是如果competitor没有升级，那么d就起削弱作用。但是d项的many firm很难排除到底是否包括了competitor的，所以d选项有问题···请大侠们指教

120The earliest Mayan pottery found at Colha, in Belize, is about 3,000 years old. Recently, however, 4,500-year-old stone agricultural implements were unearthed at Colha. These implements resemble Mayan stone implements of a much later period, also found at Colha. Moreover, the implements\' designs are strikingly different from the designs of stone implements produced by other cultures known to have inhabited the area in prehistoric times. Therefore, there were surely Mayan settlements in Colha 4,500 years ago.
Which of the following, if true, most seriously weakens the argument?

(A) Ceramic ware is not known to have been used by the Mayan people to make agricultural implements.
(B) Carbon dating of corn pollen in Colha indicates that agriculture began there around 4,500 years ago.
(C) Archaeological evidence indicates that some of the oldest stone implements found at Colha were used to cut away vegetation after controlled burning of trees to open areas of swampland for cultivation.
(D) Successor cultures at a given site often adopt the style of agricultural implements used by earlier inhabitants of the same site.
(E) Many religious and social institutions of the Mayan people who inhabited Colha 3,000 years ago relied on a highly developed system of agricultural symbols.

答案选d。d的意思是玛雅人模仿了早期文明的农业用具。可是题目中明明已经说了Moreover, the implements\' designs are strikingly different from the designs of stone implements produced by other cultures known to have inhabited the area in prehistoric times.也就是说这种石质农具跟其他文明完全不同，那么这个农具只可能是玛雅人造的，那么这个题目的推理其实是无懈可击的。痛苦中····

123

Outsourcing is the practice of obtaining from an independent supplier a product or service that a company has previously provided for itself.Vernon, Inc., a small manufacturing company that has in recent years experienced a decline in its profits, plans to boost its profits by outsourcing those parts of its business that independent suppliers can provide at lower cost than Vernon can itself.

Which of the following, if true, most strongly supports the prediction that Vernon's plan will achieve its goal?

(A) Among the parts of its business that Vernon does not plan to outsource are some that require standards of accuracy too high for most independent suppliers to provide at lower cost than Vernon can.

(B) Vernon itself acts as an independent supplier of specialized hardware items to certain manufacturers that formerly made those items themselves.

(C) Relatively few manufacturers that start as independent suppliers have been able to expand their business and become direct competitors of the companies they once supplied.

(D) Vernon plans to select the independent suppliers it will use on the basis of submitted bids.

(E) Attending to certain tasks that Vernon performs relatively inefficiently has taken up much of the time and effort of top managers whose time would have been better spent attending to Vernon's core business.
答案是b。看不懂原文，能帮忙翻译一下吗？同时能帮忙解释一下选b的理由吗？谢谢

felifeli

116 , 先弄清楚原文的结论是什么, 结论就是PRP提高了生产效率! 跟什么competitor没关系, 虽然在前面的premise部分提到了competetor. 那要weaken就直接weaken结论,即PRP没提高生产效率.   而D提到这些引进PRP的也改进了生产设备(生产设备改进肯定是提高生产效率的), 言下之意, 这些个公司生产效率的提高并一定是因为PRP, 典型的他因削弱.
[quote]
116
Firms adopting “profit-related-pay” (PRP) contracts pay wages at levels that vary with the firm’s profits. In the metalworking industry last year, firms with PRP contracts in place showed productivity per worker on average 13 percent higher than that of their competitors who used more traditional contracts.
If, on the basis of the evidence above, it is argued that PRP contracts increase worker productivity, which of the following, if true, would most seriously weaken that argument?
(A) Results similar to those cited for the metalworking industry have been found in other industries where PRP contracts are used.
(B) Under PRP contracts costs other than labor costs, such as plant, machinery, and energy, make up an increased proportion of the total cost of each unit of output.
(C) Because introducing PRP contracts greatly changes individual workers’ relationships to the firm, negotiating the introduction of PRP contracts is complex and time consuming.
(D) Many firms in the metalworking industry have modernized production equipment in the last five years, and most of these introduced PRP contracts at the same time.
(E) In firms in the metalworking industry where PRP contracts are in place, the average take-home pay is 15 percent higher than it is in those firms where workers have more traditional contracts.

答案选d。其实我的疑惑和这个链接的疑惑差不多。
http://forum.chasedream.com/GMAT_CR/thread-448283-1-1.html
就是该题的d项，想表达的是很多metalworking这个行业的公司已经升级了本公司的生产工具，而且大多数这些公司也采用了PRP的合共。
那难道competitor没有升级本公司的生产工具吗？如果连competitor也都升级了本公司生产工具，那么d对文章起到support的作用。但是如果competitor没有升级，那么d就起削弱作用。但是d项的many firm很难排除到底是否包括了competitor的，所以d选项有问题···请大侠们指教

spz316

OG120：D的意思是说玛雅人仿照4500年前人的风格造工具。——》也就是说后来挖掘出来的不是4500年前的东西，而是3000年的玛雅人仿造的。
这样看来，东西确实是玛雅人制造的，只是时间点回归到了3000年前，而不是4500年前。直接否定了文章的REASONING LINE的第一条：.1、工具是4500年前的+2、工具是玛雅人制造的----》玛雅人在4500年前
希望楼主MM能听明白

小娟子nana

哈哈，我知道这个是他因削弱。问题是我这个“因”就是选项d，有歧义阿。我知道你的推理是，条件是最后一句，结论是“prp contracts increase productivity”。削弱argument的话，我们可以用“多因一果”的方法，即，这个结论可能是由其他原因（d）造成的。这个道理我明白。但是问题出在many firm这里，如果条件中的competitor包括在这many firm里的话，题目显然是增强的。但是如果不包括的话，你的推理是正确的，也就是d选项是可以削弱的。但是你是如何肯定competitor不包括在many firm里的呢？competitor是出在条件句里的，而且作者是通过和这些competitor相比较才得出这个结论的，所以competitor这个元素是不能忽略的···希望我这样说，你明白我想表达的····
欢饮讨论该题~

小娟子nana

有谁能解释一下123题阿~谢谢~

糊香肠

123题看不懂说的啥意思啊。。。唉

gzpg

123的答案应该是e。即包出去的不是核心业务。这是个业务外包的问题。

alicejingli

它因削弱，是事实原因类的。
事实：工效提高了
原因：引入PRP
思路否定这个原因，找一个新原因解释事实，自然就是D（它因：现代设备）
个人觉得E跟工效提高没关吧
C错在没有解释事实生产率是否提高！反而是削弱（我觉得）
其实这道题只要选择新的原因来解释就好了。
求大家指正我的分析是否有错。。。。

sdcar2010

123 the answer is E, which is the closest thing to enhance profit.  The rest of choices have no bearings on the profit part.

buffonjuventus

123。Outsourcing is the practice of obtaining from an independent supplier a product or service that a company has previously provided for itself.Vernon, Inc., a small manufacturing company that has in recent years experienced a decline in its profits, plans to boost its profits by outsourcing those parts of its business that independent suppliers can provide at lower cost than Vernon can itself.
翻译：第一句Outsourcing is the practice of obtaining from an independent supplier a product or service that a company has previously provided for itself. obtain的宾语是a product or service，that后面是product or service的定语。outsource，外包。理解就是，比如我公司的产品是笔，从笔套到笔芯我都做，可是我发现有家厂，只做笔芯而且售价比我自己做的成本还要低，所以我就不做笔芯了，把制作笔芯的业务外包给这家厂，然后跟它买笔芯。

后面的应该没难度了吧