CAT Critical Reasoning Practice question with Solution 83

The stem tells us what issue is paramount here: why business executives don’t run for president. What’s the author’s explanation? Businessmen are used to the hierarchical world of business and are uncomfortable with the compromises and power-sharing that are necessary in politics; the skills and personalities that bring success in business don’t necessarily do the same in politics. But we’re also told what types of people do typically run for president: lawyers, military leaders, and career politicians. We can weaken the author’s explanation if we show that any of these ambitious types share the same attitudes towards compromise and power-sharing as businessmen. (B) does just that: Military leaders are just as uncomfortable with power-sharing and compromise as businessmen. Since that discomfort doesn’t deter military men, the explanation that such discomfort is the main reason businessmen don’t run for president is seriously weakened.

(A) The author never said that only businessmen act as fund-raisers or strategists, or even that most people who act in such capacity are businessmen, so (A) wouldn’t even affect that part of the argument, no less weaken the explanation in question.

(C) Could be, but so what? (C) offers an irrelevant comparison while ignoring the crucial character in the explanation in question: businessmen.

(D) is irrelevant. The argument concerns the previous activities of those who seek to become president. The activities of former presidents after they leave office is another matter entirely.

(E) The stimulus admits that businessmen have acted as fund-raisers and strategists in presidential campaigns, so (E) fits in nicely; besides, the stimulus drew its conclusion about the character of individual businessmen, so the actions of companies are irrelevant.