Bunuel wrote:
At the end of the year, Wilson’s Department Store awards free merchandise to its top salespeople. When presented with the fact that the number of salespeople receiving these awards has declined markedly over the past fifteen years, the newly appointed president of the company responded, “In that case, since our award criterion at present is membership in the top third of our sales force, we can also say that the number of salespeople passed over for these awards has similarly declined.”
Which one of the following is an assumption that would allow the company president’s conclusion to be properly drawn?
(A) Policies at Wilson’s with regard to hiring salespeople have not become more lax over the past fifteen years.
(B) The number of salespeople at Wilson’s has increased over the past fifteen years.
(C) The criterion used by Wilson’s for selecting its award recipients has remained the same for the past fifteen years.
(D) The average total sales figures for Wilson’s salespeople have been declining for fifteen years.
(E) Wilson’s calculates its salespeople’s sales figures in the same way as it did fifteen years ago.
Correct answer: C
The company president's conclusion flows logically as such:
Top 1/3 of salespeople awarded merchandise --> Fewer people today awarded merchandise --> Fewer people passed up today for merchandise.
(A): Incorrect. The company president's conclusion only concerns the number of salespeople, not their quality, since the top 1/3 of salespeople are awarded merchandise.
(B): Incorrect. In fact, this goes against the company president's conclusion. If the number of salespeople has increased -- and the criterion remained the same -- then the number of passed up salespeople would increase.
(C): Correct. In order for it to be concluded that the numbers of awarded salespeople and passed up salespeople have both decreased, the criterion would need to remain the same (the top 1/3 awarded).
(D): Incorrect. Total sales figures are unimportant; the award is given to a top
percentile of salesperson.
(E): Incorrect. As in (D), the calculation of figures is unimportant; only the ranking of salespeople is important.