­­­Adults who do not have young children often dislike buying medicati

­Adults who do not have young children often dislike buying medication in child-resistant bottles, and marketing surveys indicate that there is considerable demand for aspirin packaged in ordinary bottles, which do not have child-resistant tops. As a strategy for increasing overall sales of its brand of aspirin tablets, the Saber pharmaceutical company, which at present sells aspirin exclusively in bottles with child-resistant tops, is planning to start selling aspirin in ordinary bottles as well.

The argument in this Plan question does not have a directly stated conclusion. It has the following implied conclusion:

By employing the strategy of selling aspirin in ordinary bottles as well, the Saber pharmaceutical company will increase overall sales of its brand of aspirin tablets.

The reasoning supporting that conclusion is that, since adults don't like buying medication in child-resistant bottles and since marketing surveys indicate that there is considerable demand for aspirin packaged in ordinary bottles, Saber will sell more aspirin if it sells aspirin in ordinary bottles.

Which of the following would it be most useful to establish in order to evaluate whether the plan, if implemented, is likely to achieve the stated goal?

The correct answer will be the one such that a Yes or No answer to the question presented by the choice will weaken or strengthen the case for the conclusion.

(A) Whether making aspirin available in bottles that are not child-resistant will increase the likelihood that some children will ingest dangerous quantities of the aspirin.

While children ingesting dangerous quantities of aspirin woudl be unfortunate, we don't have a clear reason to believe that children's doing so would significantly affect Saber's aspirin sales. After all, if children were to ingest dangerous quantities of aspirin because of Saber's selling aspirin in ordinary bottles, Saber still might sell more aspirin than it would have if it didn't sell it in ordinary bottles.

So, the answer to the question presented by this choice has no effect on the strength of the argument.

Eliminate.

(B) Whether revenues from the sale of aspirin in bottles that are not child-resistant will be sufficient to offset the investment required to offer aspirin in such bottles.

To avoid choosing this incorrect choice, we need to notice the following. The conclusion is about increasing "overall sales."

"Overall sales" are not affected by the cost of the investment required for increasing sales. Here's why.

"Sales" and "profit" are two different things.

Profit = Sales - Costs. So, profit would be affected by the cost of the investment required to offer aspirin in ordinary bottles. On the other hand, sales is simply the amount of revenue generate through sales of the product. So, sales is not affected by the cost of an investment.

So, the answer to the question presented by this choice has no effect on the strength of the argument.

Eliminate.

(C) Whether buyers of Saber aspirin in ordinary bottles will be people who would otherwise have bought Saber aspirin in child-resistant bottles

The answer to the question presented by this choice affects the strength of the argument.

After all, if the answer is "yes," then the people who will buy Saber aspirin in ordinary bottles would have bought it child-resistant bottles anyway. In that case, Saber will not increase sales at all by selling aspirin in ordinary bottles.

On the other hand, if the answer is "no," then they would not otherwise have bought Saber aspirin. In other words, if Saber had not sold aspirin in ordinary bottles, at least some people who will buy it in ordinary bottles would not have bought it.

So, the answer to the question presented by this choice weakens or strengthens the argument.

Keep.

(D) Whether the number of people who prefer to buy aspirin in ordinary bottles is greater than the number of people who prefer to buy aspirin in child-resistant bottles

This choice is tempting because we can see that the size of the number of people who prefer aspirin in ordinary bottles will likely affect how much aspirin in ordinary bottles Saber will sell.

At the same time this choice is incorrect.

Notice that the implied conclusion of the argument is that Saber will simply "increase overall sales" by selling aspirin in ordinary bottles. It's not that Saber will sell much more aspirin by selling it in ordinary bottles or that it will sell more aspirin in ordinary bottles than in child-resistant bottles.

That conclusion could be true regardless of whether this choice is true. After all, as long as some people prefer aspirin in ordinary bottles, Saber could increase it sales by offering aspirin in ordinary bottles. It doesn't have to be the case that more people prefer aspirin in ordinary bottles than prefer it in child-resistant bottles.

So, the answer to the question presented by this choice has no effect on the strength of the argument.

Eliminate.

(E) Whether Saber currently sells aspirin tablets that are specifically formulated to be safer for children than ordinary aspirin­­­

The answer to this question would help with determining whether children will be safe when Saber sells aspirin in ordinary bottles or with determining whether Saber's selling aspirin in ordinary bottles is a good idea.

However, we must pay careful attention to the conclusion of the argument in an Evaluate question, and the conclusion of this argument is not about whether selling aspirin in ordinary bottles is safe or is a good idea. It's about increasing sales.

So, the answer to this question has no effect on the support for the specific conclusion we're concerned with.

Eliminate.

Correct answer: C­