Measuring the performance of British business in Asia from the late 18

The options C and D of question 1 are merged into each other. This is leading to confusion. So, I request some moderator to correct the two options as follows :

(c) indicate that data about the profits of various businesses provide more useful information about short-term than about long-term performance
(d) illustrate the difficulties in drawing conclusions about business success or failure from published profits

carcass

Problems with question 1. Someone could enlighten me?

question 3 is hard. it takes me a long time between choice c and b
choice b.
this is typical wrong answer for main idea question. the wrong answer mention only one or two paragraph but not all paragraphs. choice b mentions only paragraph 1 . it is really about criticization. but last paragraph is about new way of considering British business. so, choice C covers all the paragraph while choice b cover only paragraph 1.

this is hard to realize that the wrong answer choice dose not mention all paragraph.

Passage map - British business performance in Asian countries
P1: To explain difficulties in measuring performance of british businesses in Asian countries
P2: Propose an alternate measure - market cap


Q1 - Purpose
Reserves are discussed in P1 and from what we know Profits aren't the most accurate measure as banks retained their profits in large hidden reserves, which were transferred and then published.

A is incorrect - true, profits are less useful, but who said dividends were more accurate? We are told dividends are misleading as well later in the passage.
B is incorrect - the passage actually states that british businesses dominated asia
C is incorrect - we know nothing on short/long term performance
D is correct as more broadly, the commentary on profit and dividends serves to exemplify the first sentence of the passage- that "measuring performance is difficult".
E is incorrect - overseas banks in British transactions? We'd want to assess performance in domestic transactions right?

Q2 - Inference
High dividends are discussed in P1 - broadly, we know that high dividends were paid in response to demand from stockholders and paid from reserves held from war-time efforts
A - They were made possible by profits, but profits derived from India? I don't think so - they were paid from retained profits accumulating from the WWI
B - what is the accepted view? We don't know this. We just know that dividends taxation rates were favourable.
C - is Incorrect - they were unusually high, but NOT because the exchange rate or taxation rate was lower, it was because stockholders demanded this.
D - No - we cannot support this. We just know that the dividends were unusually high, so I'd stand to argue against this.
E is Correct as we are told Exactly this- "the high dividends... were more a response to stockholders' demands for short-term profit-taking of earnings the companies had retained from the First World War years...than the result of spectacularly successful enterprise during the period 1919 to 1921"

Q3 - Purpose
Overall the passage is explanatory/ discussion-based concerning the difficulties of measuring business performance, so the tone of the passage is Neutral
A - nothing is refuted. Incorrect
B - nothing is criticized. Incorrect
C - its less about considering, more about discussing ways to evaluate british business performance in asian countries but keep C for now
D - Adv/Disadv of studying business? No.
E - NO - features of the businesses themselves aren't discussed, instead the circumstances in which the businesses operated are discussed.

C is the correct answer- but note this

Considering is defined as "taking into consideration"
Example: Considering the circumstances, Simon was remarkably phlegmatic
Example relevant to us: Considering the circumstances, British business performance is difficult to assess

Hello from the GMAT Club VerbalBot!

Thanks to another GMAT Club member, I have just discovered this valuable topic, yet it had no discussion for over a year. I am now bumping it up - doing my job. I think you may find it valuable (esp those replies with Kudos).

Want to see all other topics I dig out? Follow me (click follow button on profile). You will receive a summary of all topics I bump in your profile area as well as via email.