ykaiim wrote:
In Brindon County, virtually all of the fasteners—such as nuts, bolts, and screws—used by workshops and manufacturing firms have for several years been supplied by the Brindon Bolt Barn, a specialist wholesaler. In recent months many of Brindon County’s workshops and manufacturing firms have closed down, and no new ones have opened. Therefore, the Brindon Bolt Barn will undoubtedly show a sharp decline in sales volume and revenue for this year as compared to last year.
The argument depends on assuming which of the following?
(B) The workshops and manufacturing firms that have remained open have a smaller volume of work to do this year than they did last year.
(E) The Brindon Bolt Barn is not a company that gets the great majority of its business from customers outside Brindon County.
Let me talk about options B and E.
Option B can be the CORRECT answer if I make the following change:
(B) The workshops and manufacturing firms that have remained open
DO NOT have a significantly bigger volume of work to do this year than they did last year.
The negation of this option would be:
The workshops and manufacturing firms that have remained open
have a significantly bigger volume of work to do this year than they did last year.
In such a case, these firms may end up compensating for the firms that closed down, and thus, the Brindon Bolt Barn may not see any decline. Thus, the argument breaks down.
Now, let's come back to the original option B:
(B) The workshops and manufacturing firms that have remained open have a smaller volume of work to do this year than they did last year.
This option is a good strengthener but not an assumption. The only way to differentiate strengtheners from assumptions is the NEGATION technique. Without negation, you may end up considering strengtheners assumptions.
Now, this option is not an assumption since its negation doesn't break down the argument. The negation of this option is:
~B: The workshops and manufacturing firms that have remained open
DO NOT have a smaller volume of work to do this year than they did last year.
This means that they have the same volume of work or a higher volume of work. Since the negation allows the possibility of the "same volume" of work - a possibility that doesn't break down the argument - this option is not an assumption.
*************
Let me explain
the importance of words by talking about option E. Let's say I remove the word "sharp" from the conclusion of the argument. In this case, option E will become INCORRECT.
Surprised?
Let me explain.
In this case, the conclusion is:
the Brindon Bolt Barn will undoubtedly show
a decline in sales volume and revenue for this year as compared to last year.
Now, let's consider the negation of option E:
~E: The Brindon Bolt Barn is a company that gets the great majority of its business from customers outside Brindon County.
Even if the BBB gets the majority of its business from customers outside Brindon County, we can still expect
some decline in sales volume and revenue for this year, given that many of Brindon County’s workshops and manufacturing firms have closed down. If your one avenue of revenue goes down, it is sensible to expect some decline in revenue. Right?
Thus, the negation of option E will not break down the argument in this case. Therefore, option E will not be an assumption in this case.
*****
Now, option E is correct in case of the original passage because the conclusion mentions "sharp decline". Now, if the BBB gets the majority of its business from customers outside Brindon County, we don't expect a "sharp decline" in sales volume and revenue for this year.
You see how a single word can change the whole game.
Here's an article that discusses more examples of how small changes can make or break options:
https://gmatclub.com/forum/what-defines ... 43346.html