GMAT Verbal Reasoning Practice Test 1

The conclusion of the argument is that we should expect an unusually cold winter because we are in the twelfth year of a cycle in which every twelfth year is unusually cold. Although the 12-year cycle might indeed have existed for the last 36 years, it goes against our understanding of weather that such a pattern will continue. In all likelihood, the fact that the twelfth year has been unusually cold for the last 36 years is coincidence, not a set meteorological pattern. Thus, the information that would most strengthen the argument is predictions from the National Weather Center, which uses advanced forecasting technology and analysis of existing weather patterns to predict the weather and could estimate the general tenor of the approaching season. The charts in choices A through C would be useful in proving that such a pattern has existed the last 36 years, but they do not provide strong evidence of the weather to come. A discussion of weather patterns (choice E) would be informative, but it would not strengthen the argument about the approaching winter weather.