Ms. Edmonds Does not like to See Children Gossiping About Each Other on the School Grounds.

Question: Ms. Edmonds does not like to see children gossiping about each other on the school grounds. Yesterday, when she overheard Tom gossiping about Jack behind his back, she asked Tom to come over and explained the harm that gossip can cause. Today Ms. Edmonds overheard Dorothy gossiping about Amy behind her back.

Which of the following conclusions is most strongly supported by the information above?

1. Ms. Edmonds is likely to expel Dorothy from school for a day.
2. Ms. Edmonds will probably keep her thoughts on the subject to herself.
3. Dorothy is likely to burst into tears as a result of a severe reprimand from Ms. Edmonds.
4. Ms. Edmonds may call Dorothy over and explain the harm that gossip can cause.
5. Amy is not likely to forgive Dorothy for quite a while.

Answer: D
Explanation:

This is an Inference Question, so it is made up of premises only. In GMAT critical reasoning question, candidates need to compare the arguments in the passage to see if it is according to the passage or not. They need to find the correct answer using their logical and analytical reasoning.

Candidates need to find a conclusion stemming from the premises. In other words, candidates need to take one small step forward and draw a conclusion:

Let us check all the premices one by one.

Premise A: Ms. Edmonds does not want children to gossip.
Premise B: Yesterday, when she heard Tom gossip about Jack, Ms. Edmonds explained to Tom why gossip is bad.
Premise C: Today, Ms. Edmonds heard Dorothy gossip about Amy.

So, Premise A + Premise A + Premise A = Conclusion: ?

Now, we need to find the conclusion.

1. Ms. Edmonds is likely to expel Dorothy from school for a day. - As per Premise B, we know that Ms. Edmonds chose to talk to Tom, rather than expel him for a day. It is incorrect to infer that Ms. Edmonds is likely to treat Dorothy in such a different manner. Hence, we cannot justify the point, making it incorrect.
2. Ms. Edmonds will probably keep her thoughts on the subject to herself. - if we look at her past experience, Ms. Edmonds does not keep her thoughts on gossiping to herself. The inference should always be a small step forward beyond the premises. It should not be a step in the opposite direction.
3. Dorothy is likely to burst into tears as a result of a severe reprimand from Ms. Edmonds. - The passage does not have any idea what Dorothy is likely to do. The premises also tells us nothing on the subject. The inference that we will make must be based on the premises. Since this not, we can refer it as incorrect.
4. Ms. Edmonds may call Dorothy over and explain the harm that gossip can cause. - This means that she will call Dorothy to explain about gossip. So, if Ms. Edmonds doesn't care for gossip (Premise A) and upon hearing it yesterday intervened by way of explanation (Premise B), it makes sense to infer that she may act the same way today, when faced with a similar incident (Premise C). Since all the premices are present, we will be able to draw the conclusion. Hence, this is the correct answer. Hence, this is the correct answer.
5. Amy is not likely to forgive Dorothy for quite a while. - This is an Inference Question, so it is made up of premises only. We will not be able to come to a conclusion of the situations. Hence, we will reject this as well.

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