Whenever you see a boldface question you should start finding the premises, subconclusions and conclusion of the argument and asking yourself, do the premises support the conclusion?, does this premise support the author conclusion or a subconclusion that the author rejects?, and so on.

Premise: A product that represents a clear technological advance over competing products can generally command a high price.

Premise: Because technological advances tend to be quickly surpassed and companies want to make large profits while they still can,

subconclusion: many companies charge the greatest price for such a product

Counterpremise: But large profits on the new product will give competitors a strong incentive to quickly match the mew product’s capabilities

conclusion: the strategy to maximize overall profit from a new product is to charge less than the greatest possible price.

Before going to the answer choices, you may want to rephrase what could be the role of the bold-face portions.

technological advances tend to be quickly surpassed is used to support the subconclusion that many companies charge the greatest price for such a product. However, the author seems to not agree with this policy and recommends that a company charge less than the greatest possible price.

So a rephrase could be. The first is evidence to support a strategy contrary to the author conclusion.

A) This could sound OK with the rephrase. However, the strategy is not counterproductive because technological advances tend to be quickly surpassed but because large profits on the new product will give competitors a strong incentive to quickly match the new product’s capabilities
So A is out.

B) the subconclusion is contrary to the argument, so we can eliminate B.

C) this is close to the rephrase but for the part talking about the rejection. The first part supports the second part (subconclusion)
This is the correct answer choice.

D) the author does not reject the first bold face part.
D is out

E) here you should have clear that the goal of the author is to maximize the profits, as is stated in the conclusion "the strategy to maximize overall profit".

So the argument does not reject the goal that the boldfaces parts seek to achieve.

C sound good and above explanation is what I would vouch for

what is the OA ?
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Saaquib

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You're right I forgot to write my answer. I'll do so next time.

To the original question (the image) - not the previous one. IMO : C

Assumption = Premise
Consideration = Premise

A – “counter productive” is wrong
B – there is no support for first strategy
C – Hold
D – “rejected” is too far fetched. The first bold part is not rejected by argument
E – The second strategy is not “yet” adopted.

C it is.


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A. Can someone explain clearly why it is C?