Italian cuisine is most often considered to be present all over the world.…
2025
Italian cuisine is most often considered to be present all over the world.
However, in India the number of Italian restaurants selling pasta and pizza is way higher than there are in any other Asian capital city.
Obviously, Indians love to have junk food but do not seem too proud to eat it.
Which of the following, if true, would most weaken the author's contention?
- A.
There are also a larger number of American restaurants in India than there are in other Asian capital cities.
- B.
Indian Shahi cuisine is very expensive.
- C.
The number of Indian tourists eating in Italian pizza cafes is very low.
- D.
There are an unusually large number of Italian tourists in India who eat at pizza joints.
Attempted by 1 students.
Show answer & explanation
Correct answer: D
Concept: A ‘weaken the argument’ question asks you to find the option that most undermines the reasoning connecting the evidence to the author's conclusion, not one that adds a random fact. The strongest weakener typically introduces an alternative explanation for the evidence that makes the stated conclusion unnecessary or unlikely.
Note also that when a contention bundles more than one claim — here, that Indians love junk food, and that they are not too proud to eat it — a weakening option only needs to attack the piece the cited evidence is actually offered to support: the causal claim linking restaurant numbers to Indian taste.
Application:
Here the evidence is: Italian restaurants selling pasta and pizza are far more numerous in Indian cities than in other Asian capitals. The author concludes this proves Indians love junk food. This conclusion silently assumes the restaurants' customers are mostly Indian. If instead an unusually large number of Italian tourists in India eat at these pizza joints, the high restaurant count is explained by tourist demand rather than by any special Indian taste for junk food, so the assumed link between the evidence and the conclusion is broken.
Cross-check / contrast:
The comparison with American restaurants being more numerous in India than elsewhere compares an entirely different cuisine, so it leaves the author's reasoning about Italian pizza and pasta patronage untouched.
The cost of Shahi cuisine is a fact about an unrelated Indian dish and says nothing about the customer base of Italian restaurants, so it cannot affect the argument either way.
A low number of Indian tourists eating in Italian pizza cafes is a fact about a narrow subgroup (Indians who are themselves tourists), not about the general Indian population the contention is about, so it leaves the author's assumption unchallenged.
Only the option identifying a large tourist customer base supplies a genuine alternative cause for the restaurant numbers, which is what most weakens the author's contention.