Commentator: The Duke of Acredia argued long ago that only

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In case of option B...Nowhere does the argument say that it "always" led to failure... Eliminated

Hence D

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Hi ENEM

Thanks for your reply.
Please consider the highlighted part of the stem -

Commentator: The Duke of Acredia argued long ago that only virtuous Acredian rulers concerned with the well-being of the people will be able to rule successfully. Since then, when Acredian governments have fallen, their falls have always been during the rule of one who viciously disregards the people's needs. The Duke, then, was right about at least one thing: Concern for the welfare of the people is necessary for the successful governance of Acredia.

Please let me know where I am going wrong in considering this section of the stem.

Thanks in Advance

What is the problem with B. Please explain.

The argument: whenever a government falls, the reason is the lack of concern for the welfare of the people. What if, in some cases, the rulers were not concerned and still managed to hold their government. Their government was successful in holding but it wasn’t concerned with the people’s welfare.

Posted from my mobile device

Commentator: The Duke of Acredia argued long ago that only virtuous Acredian rulers concerned with the well-being of the people will be able to rule successfully. Since then, when Acredian governments have fallen, their falls have always been during the rule of one who viciously disregards the people's needs. The Duke, then, was right about at least one thing: Concern for the welfare of the people is necessary for the successful governance of Acredia.

The reasoning in the commentator's argument is most vulnerable to criticism on the grounds that the argument

* (A)  ignores the possibility that the conditions that are necessary for the welfare of the people are likely to change over time - Irrelevant

* (B)  infers the necessity of a certain condition for success from the fact that its absence has always led to failure - Incorrect - The argument states that-
"when Acredian governments have fallen, their falls have always been during the rule of one who viciously disregards the people's needs" and not the opppsite -

When people's needs have been disregarded by Acredian rulers, then the Acredian governments have fallen-- B would be correct if the highlighted part was present in lieu of part quoted above.

Since then, when Acredian governments have fallen, their falls have always been during the rule of one who viciously disregards the people's needs.--> there might have been cases when an Acredian ruler has viciously disregarded the people's needs but still the Acredian government did not fall. So, the biggest issue in B is the word ALWAYS.

* (C)  appeals to evidence from sources that are likely to be in some way biased or unreliable - Incorrect - we are given no basis for this

* (D)  infers that a certain condition is required for success from the fact that the lack of that condition is associated with failure - Correct

* (E)  presumes, without providing justification, that the character of past rulers can be assessed in some completely objective way - Incorrect

Answer D


AjiteshArun , GMATNinja , mikemcgarry , egmat , RonPurewal , DmitryFarber , MagooshExpert , ccooley , ChiranjeevSingh, GMATGuruNY , VeritasKarishma , other experts-- please enlighten

Your reasoning for option B is correct.

Hi KarishmaB Maa'm / MartyMurray Sir,  I was down to option B and D and then chose option B because of this portion in the passage . 
"Since then, when Acredian governments have fallen, their falls have always been during the rule of one who viciously disregards the people's needs."
​​​​​​​Please help me figure out where I went wrong.

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­Here's what the passage says:

Since then, when Acredian governments have fallen, their falls have always been during the rule of one who viciously disregards the people's needs.

Notice that the passage is saying "fall" is always associated wtih "viciously disregards."

So, the passage says basically that failure always involves disregard.

Here's what (B) says:

(B) infers the necessity of a certain condition for success from the fact that its absence has always led to failure

Notice that this choice means basically that the commentator says disregard is alway leads to failure.

In other words, the choice means basically that the commentator says disregard always involves failure.

Does the passage say that? No, right?

The passage says that failure always involves disregard, but that doesn't mean disregard always involves failure.

In fact, given what the commentator says, it could be that there has often been disregard without failure.

So, what (B) says doesn't match how the commentator argues.­