This year, our company has moved its call center service team from wit

The strongest opinion language, and therefore the most useful language in the prompt, is the non-bold phrase text right between the two bold sections. "We most certainly are" is the author's conclusion.

This conclusion is directly followed by the very useful phrase 'as is indicated by'. This phrase tells us that what follows is evidence. So the second bold bit is evidence for the author's conclusion. This eliminates answer choices C and D.

i think the most useful phrases to keep in mind for the first bold bit are the conclusion again ("we most certainly are") and the the phrase "some have questioned' which indicates a non-author opinion (in this case skeptical questioning).

The author's conclusion on its own doesn't really mean anything. "We most certainly are" is clearly a strong claim but we have no idea what it means. We most certainly are...are what? In other words the phrase on its own does not give the content of the conclusion. The content is given in the first bold section. We most certainly are 'providing equal service per dollar....'. This matches answer B.

The phrase that precedes the first bold bit can be helpful in eliminating tempting wrong answers. "Some have questioned..." indicates that what follows is not necessarily the author's opinion. Indeed, we know from the author's conclusion that the author confidently answers 'no' to the question posed by 'some'

So the first bold bit is a question posed by somebody else (a question that the author's conclusion answers 'no' to). In other words, the first bold bit is definitely not evidence for the author's conclusion. So E can't be correct.

Comparing verbs in answer choices can be a good way to find answers that get the opinion wrong. Answer A) starts "the first questions..." Answer B) starts "the first gives" One big difference is that 'question' is opinionated and 'gives' is not. Even though A repeats a word from the prompt, A suggests that the author is doing the questioning; answer A suggests that the author is skeptical of her own conclusion. In contrast, answer B doesn't give the author any opinion that isn't hers.

The conclusion is given below in Green !!

This year, our company has moved its call center service team from within the country to an offshore location. Some members of our organization have questioned whether we are providing equal customer service, per dollar of cost, as we did before. We most certainly are, [b]as is indicated by our satisfaction surveys administered at random to people who call the company help line.

(a) The first questions the conclusion of the argument; the second provides support for that conclusion.
(b) The first gives the content of the conclusion of the argument; the second provides support for the conclusion of the argument.
(c) The first states the conclusion of the argument; the second calls that conclusion into question.
(d) The first provides support for the conclusion of the argument ; the second indicates the content of that conclusion.
(e) Each provides support for the conclusion of the argument.

was stuck in B and E ..after

analysing that in E , first statement is not supporting the conclusion, i marked it out.

B.


2nd statement of course supports the conclusion

Great question. The fact that whether was not bolded changes the answer to the problem. You have to look at every word in every problem!

Official Explanation

Reading the question: since this is a boldfaced question, our task is to identify the role of each sentence in the argument given.

Sentence

Starts With.../Includes...

Function

1st

"This year, our company has moved"

Fact

2nd

"questioned whether we are providing"

Question raised (with implicit opinion)

3rd

"We most certainly are, as is..."

Opinion + evidence answering question

The first sentence gives a fact, in bold. The second gives a question that has been raised, with an implied opinion. That question is in bold. The third gives a direct opinion, contrary to the implied opinion, with a piece of evidence attached on the end.

Applying the filter: according to the answer choices, the first bold part either "lends support" or "states the conclusion." But the content of the conclusion is not the first statement--it's the second one. We are providing equal customer service, per dollar of cost, as we did before. That's what the author believes. So choices (A) and (C) are out. We look for an answer choice that attributes the second boldfaced sentence correctly. Only (B) makes that attribution correctly.

The correct answer is (B).
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VeritasKarishma GMATNinja MentorTutoring
If I changed the first bold face to "whether we are providing equal customer service, per dollar of cost, as we did before.
Will option A be correct ?

Hello, Harsh2111s. You have to be careful when you tinker with answer choices, since they are presented exactly the way they are for a reason. Regardless of whether whether were boldfaced, I would still have a hard time arguing against (B). The second sentence of the passage is a statement, and we are being informed that some members have questioned something. The members are not actually questioning the conclusion in the moment, and neither is the passage. For (A) to be justified, I would expect a more dialogue-based format and, to be honest, a different setup entirely.

Thank you for bringing my attention to the question.

- Andrew
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I believe A can be correct if we include "whether" in bold statement.
Our conclusion is "We most certainly are providing equal customer service, per dollar of cost, as we did before."
As per option A, we are questioning this conclusion.

The main point is we don't have whether as highlighted word. So we can't say its a question, nor we have any question mark following. First boldface depicts the supporting statement for conclusion, which is correctly represented in second statement.

Posted from my mobile device
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I don't have any issue with OA.
Just needed experts comment if whether is in bolded portion.
Then as per my reasoning above Will option A is correct ?
Hope you get my question now.

Hello, Harsh2111s. I tracked down this post I remember having read last year by VeritasPrepHailey, a post on a boldface question that proved helpful to many members of the community. I believe you will find her three-step process useful for evaluating this question, with or without whether being included in the first boldface. I hope you will agree with me, in the end, that the frame of the sentence—members... have questioned X—is that of a statement rather than any sort of a challenge. If not, though, then we may have to agree to hold different views on this one. (No hard feelings either way.)

Happy reading.

- Andrew
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Hello Experts,
Could I please get an explanation for why option A is incorrect in this question.

Thanks in Advance!

They have unsuspectingly removed "whether" from the first boldface hence the first "bold" sentence is actually the conclusion of the argument and the second is the evidence or support.
They have reversed the order of the two, because generally A follows B here it is B then A, that causes some cognitive dissonance, if you can see through it, this is a 30 second question.

Almost, richirish. The conclusion of the argument is actually the few words between the boldfaced statements: We most certainly are [providing equal customer service, per dollar of cost, as we did before]. Yes, whether has been left out of the boldface, but I have argued above and maintain that whether whether were in boldface, it would make no difference as to the correct answer here. The reason is that we are being told that some members... have questioned something, and that does not constitute a questioning itself of the conclusion. For example, if your knee-jerk reaction to my response is, I disagree, then that would be questioning my own conclusion; however, if you were to PM someone, who subsequently informed me that you disagreed [with my conclusion], then that would be a step removed from an actual challenge. Choice (B) is correct because the conclusion of the argument—again, the part between the two boldfaced statements—needs buttressing to answer the question, "We most certainly are" what?

I hope that helps clarify any lingering doubts either you or vmadan10 may have on this one. If you did, in fact, get the answer in 30 seconds or so, then you beat me to it. I took over a minute!

Good luck with your studies.

- Andrew
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I get your point, but I think that level of analysis was not needed to arrive at the right answer, but I am no expert or tutor! I got in 42 seconds to be precise.

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