A greater number of newspapers are sold in Town S than in Town T. Ther

can someone tell me how can we safely assume the answer is D? What if the sales of local newspaper, as mentioned in D, is smaller than the difference in total newspaper sales between the the two towns? say 100 are sold in T and 200 in S. Out of the 200 only 2 copies are of the local newspaper. GMATNinja

The correct answer to this question is actually (E), not (D). But you raise a good question: how can we eliminate (D)?

As you suggest, (D) does not destroy the conclusion. It's possible that the number of papers "restricted to the coverage of local events" sold in Town S is quite small, or it could be quite large -- we simply don't know.

But keep in mind, for (D) to be wrong, it doesn't need to destroy the argument, it just needs to weaken it. And the fact that some local papers are sold in Town S weakens the argument (even if we don't know exactly how many).

Remember that the conclusion depends on the fact that more newspapers are sold in Town S than Town T. So the fact the some papers are sold in Town S which don't cover major world events can only weaken the argument. If it's a large number, it really weakens it. if it's a small number, it only slightly weakens it. But either way, (D) weakens the argument, and we can discard it.

I hope that helps!

Hi Experts
I have doubt in option D and option E
D) It states that weekly newspaper is published in Town S. It doesn't mean that if the paper is published in Town S then people are buying that local newspaper. They might still be buying the national newspaper. So according to me it doesn't have any impact on argument

E) The average price of newspaper sold in town S is less than that in Town T. If the price of newspaper is less in Town S. then there are chances that people in Town S are buying reading more news. So there is a slight possibility that people in Town S are more educated towards world news. So this strengthens our conclusion.

Premise:
A greater number of newspapers are sold in Town S than in Town T.

Conclusion: The citizens of Town S are better informed about major world events than are the citizens of Town T.

We certainly jumped the gun here, right? Just because more papers are sold, we can't conclude that citizens of S are better informed.
What if town S has many more people than town T? That will explain why more papers are sold in S. Option (A)
What if town S people buy the newspapers for discount coupons but not read it? Again, then people of S may not be better informed. Option (C)
What if newspapers printed in town S are of local news only. Then town S people will not be better informed about major world events. Option (D)
Option (B) says that people of town T buy their newspapers in town S. That also explains more papers sold in S though people of town T may be better informed.

(E) The average newsstand price of newspapers sold in Town S is lower than the average price of newspapers sold in Town T.
Price has nothing to do with whether people will be better informed. Just because you price a product lower, doesn't mean it will automatically sell more. Only someone who wants to buy it will buy it. Besides, the price may be lower because more papers are sold (economies of scale) so the cause may be "more papers sold" and lower price may be the effect, not the other way around.
This does not weaken our conclusion.

Answer (E)

This choice still casts doubt on the conclusion.

The conclusion is that "the citizens of Town S are better informed about major world events."

That conclusion is based on only one fact, the fact that "A greater number of newspapers are sold in Town S than in Town T."

So, the information provided by (D) weakens the argument by indicating that, even though "a greater number of newspapers are sold in Town S," the citizens of Town S may not be better informed about world events because it's quite possible that "A greater number of newspapers are sold in Town S than in Town T" only because people are reading the local paper.


We already know from the passage that "A greater number of newspapers are sold in Town S than in Town T."

So, the information about pricing provided by (E) doesn't change what we know about how many newspapers are sold in Town S. Thus, (E) has no effect on the argument.

Hi KarishmaB doesn't the lower avg price of newspapers in Town S suggest that because the cost is lower hence more newspapers are sold?

It seems like a weaker to me. The logic about economies of scale is not mentioned anywhere in the question