SaraiGMAT wrote:
Every book written by June Summers, winner of the Booker Prize, has received critical acclaim from literary reviewers the world over. Moreover, five of her novels have been on the best-seller list over the past decade. Thus, her latest novel, despite initially having earned a rather tepid review in the New York Review of Books, will in all likelihood be another best seller, since Summers has managed to achieve such unparalleled popularity and an international reader base.
Which of the following is an assumption on which the argument is based?
A. Prominent and widely-read publications, such as the New York Review of Books, base their selection of the subjects they review on contemporary readership trends.
B. Readers of the critical reviews are easily influenced by the articles they read and are likely to base their purchases on the advice of those they consider professional assessors.
C. It is often the case that when a reader takes a favorable view to the book he or she has recently read, the reader is more likely to search for and read reviews of the book.
D. The first book Summers wrote after graduating Summa Cum Laud from the creative writing program and Mr. Hartford University received first place in the Mt. Hartford Up-and-Coming-Authors Competition.
E. Literary reviews around the world tend to vary little among publications despite the diversity of international interests and standards.
Interpretation of Stem -
June Summers books have been critically acclaimed from literary reviewers world over. Also she had five best sellers in the last decade, that is, her 5 books were read the most by readers in the past decade. But one literary reviewer, namely New York Review has given a review saying that the books are not that good as people claim it to be, but nothing has been said by the reviewer in bad terms of the book.
So we look at the answer choices in accordance to this -
(A) Prominent and widely-read publications, such as the New York Review of Books, base their selection of the subjects they review on contemporary readership trends.
Explanation - Here they are trying to say that the New York Reviewer only chooses books as subjects that are have modern and vast readership trends. Hence we can assume the reason for selecting June Summer's books were its popularity in the modern day books. Hence this statement helps us in assuming that the next book of June summers will be read by many even if previous books not that positively reviewed by New York reviewer.(B). Readers of the critical reviews are easily influenced by the articles they read and are likely to base their purchases on the advice of those they consider professional assessors.
Explanation - This if anything can be considered as a weakener as according to this, people will discouraged from buying based on the reviews of the books.
(C). It is often the case that when a reader takes a favorable view to the book he or she has recently read, the reader is more likely to search for and read reviews of the book.
Explanation - One way to look at this is that if readers likes a book, he or she will may try to look for positive reviews of the books as the book to him is already favorable. But we can also assume that even if it is favorable to him, he might try find negative reviews of the book in order to prove his judgement of favoritism to be wrong. If we have two ways in an assumption we can never call it an assumption as it is one thing that has to be pointing one way only. (D). The first book Summers wrote after graduating Summa Cum Laud from the creative writing program and Mr. Hartford University received first place in the Mt. Hartford Up-and-Coming-Authors Competition.
Explanation - Seems completely irrelevant as we are talking about book not john summers herself.(E). Literary reviews around the world tend to vary little among publications despite the diversity of international interests and standards.
Explanation - This also seems irrelevant as it does not say anything about the book in specific.Hence A _________________
Regards,
AD
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An admiration by anybody is an explanation understood by somebody !!! Happy GMATing... Go Nuts