Studies have Shown that Elderly People who Practice a Religion are Much More likely to Die

Question: Studies have shown that elderly people who practice a religion are much more likely to die immediately after an important religious holiday period than immediately before one. Researchers have concluded that the will to live can prolong life, at least for short periods of time.

Which of the following, if true, would most strengthen the researchers' conclusion?

(A) Elderly people who practice a religion are less likely to die immediately before or during an important religious holiday than at any other time of the year.
(B) Elderly people who practice a religion appear to experience less anxiety at the prospect of dying than do other people.
(C) Some elderly people who do practice a religion live much longer than most elderly people who do not.
(D) Most elderly people who participate in religious holidays have different reasons for participating than young people do.
(E) Many religions have important holidays in the spring and fall, seasons with the lowest death rates for elderly people.

“Studies have shown that elderly people who practice a religion are much more likely to die” - is a GMAT Critical question. To answer the question, a candidate can either be finding 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 strengths and weaknesses of the argument, or find the logical flaw in the argument. The GMAT CR section contains 10 -13 GMAT critical reasoning questions out of 36 GMAT verbal questions.

Answer: A
Explanation: GMAT critical reasoning tests the reasoning skills along with the candidate's logical and analytical thinking abilities. The candidate has to deduce the correct option by finding the logically correct argument.

Argument Evaluation:

Hypothesis: Studies have shown that elderly people who practice a religion are much more likely to die immediately after an important religious holiday period than immediately before one.

This refers to the fact that practicing religion impacts the death time positively.

Conclusion: Researchers have concluded that the will to live can prolong life, at least for short periods of time.

This refers to will live a bit long is at play.

Let us check the given options that most strengthen the researchers' conclusion:

Option A: Correct.

This statement states that before and during religious festivals deaths are fewer than average. So it can be considered people’s will to live and the excitement of religious festivities keep them going. Hence option A is the correct answer.

Option B: Irrelevant.

This statement is irrelevant because it is stating about people and their death rates.

Option C: Incorrect.

This statement states about people’s age, which is not required. It further discusses that old religious people usually die before or after any festival. So, even if they die at 70 or 75 years of age, this is not required.

Option D: Incorrect.

This statement is irrelevant because it states about religious holidays.

Option E: Incorrect.

This statement states immediately before vs immediately after the festival. Hence, this is irrelevant.

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