Outsourcing is the practice of obtaining from an independent supplier a product or service that a
company has previously provided for itself. Since a company’s chief objective is to realize the highest
possible year-end profits, any product or service that can be obtained from an independent supplier for less
than it would cost the company to provide the product or service on its own should be outsourced.
Which of the following, if true, most seriously weakens the argument?
(A) If a company decides to use independent suppliers for a product, it can generally
exploit the vigorous competition arising among several firms that are interested in supplying
that product.
(B) Successful outsourcing requires a company to provide its suppliers with information about its
products and plans that can fall into the hands of its competitors and give them a business
advantage.
(C) Certain tasks, such as processing a company’s payroll, are commonly outsourced, whereas
others, such as handling the company’s core business, are not.
(D) For a company to provide a product or service for itself as efficiently as an independent supplier
can provide it, the managers involved need to be as expert in the area of that product or service
as the people in charge of that product or service at an independent supplier are.
(E) When a company decides to use an independent supplier for a product or service, the independent
supplier sometimes hires members of the company’s staff who formerly made the product
or provided the service that the independent supplier now supplies.
要分清前提和结论，楼主认为是论据的东西其实是结论的一部分，前提只有两个：
（1）Outsourcing is the practice of obtaining from an independent supplier a product or service that a
company has previously provided for itself
（2）a company’s chief objective is to realize the highest possible year-end profits
这两个前提都没有提到成本，你把常识引入了推理过程中，自然而然地觉得某些东西是论据。“argument论据到底是什么？我认为是企业外包的原因，即可以以更低的成本从供应商那获得本应该自己生产的产品或服务”，题目中并没有把这句话作为论据，这是楼主想象的或者曲解的。
原题的结论是：any product or service that can be obtained from an independent supplier for less
than it would cost the company to provide the product or service on its own should be outsourced。
按照楼主所说，其实你把结论理解成了the company's services should be outsourced. 而把原题的结论理解成了一个论据。
从两个前提推出这个结论本来就很不充分，（P1）外包是把以前自己做的东西交给别人做，（P2）公司的目的是利润最大化
如何推出（C）一切别人可以用更低成本帮自己做到的事情都该外包？实际上这两个前提根本无法推出任何有关外包的价值判断，要推出一件事应不应该做，需要一些有关利弊的前提。B项给出了外包的一个缺点，实际上就反驳了原结论，它根本不需要截断前提和结论之间的关系，因为前提跟结论几乎没有所谓的逻辑关系，原argument本来就是一个很扯的argument.作者: vansonkated 时间: 2011-2-14 20:46
