Advertisement: Clark brand-name parts are made for cars manufactured

Question

Advertisement: Clark brand-name parts are made for cars manufactured in this country. They satisfy all of our government automotive test—the toughest such tests in the world. With foreign-made parts, you never know which might be reliable and which are cheap look-alikes that are poorly constructed and liable to cost you hundreds of dollars in repairs. Therefore, be smart and insist on brand-name parts by Clark for your car.

The argument requires the assumption that

(A) Clark parts are available only in this country
(B) foreign-made parts are not suitable for cars manufactured in this country
(C) no foreign-made parts satisfy our government standards
(D) parts that satisfy our government standards are not as poorly constructed as cheap foreign-made parts
(E) if parts are made for cars manufactured in our country, they are not poorly constructed

Skywalker18 · Accepted Answer

The conclusion of this argument is that you should insist on Clark parts. Why? Because they satisfy all our government tests (tough tests!) and with foreign-made parts you can't tell if they're good or cheapos that will break.

There's a few gaps in this argument. For one, perhaps I'm convinced we should buy domestic parts that pass these tests, but why Clark? Why not Clark's domestic competitor that passes all the tests AND offers discounts?

Furthermore, how good are these tests? Sure they're the toughest, but are they tough enough? Could you pass these tests and still be a cheap, liable-to-break car part?

(D) "deals" with this second issue - it assures us that the parts that pass are not as bad as the cheapo foreign ones. If you negate (D), it destroys the argument.

(A) is out of scope - we're not interested in whether we can get them but if we should.

(B) is too extreme and is out of scope. We don't need to assume that the foreign parts don't work for domestic cars. We already know those foreign parts are problematic. Also, this argument has never been restricted to parts for domestic cars. Out of scope.

(C) is too extreme. The argument's premise allows for some foreign parts to be high-quality. The issue is that you can't tell if a foreign part is good or not.

(E) is tempting, but we're not interested in any part made in this country; we're concerned with Clark parts! Even if some domestic parts were bad, the Clark ones could still be fine.

Bunuel · Answer

OFFICIAL EXPLANATION

The needed assumption is that parts manufactured in this country are better constructed, or at least not so poorly constructed, as cheap foreign-made parts.  The answer is (D).  Note, (B), (C), and (E) are too strong.

vibhaj · Answer

the point here is 
Since poorly constructed parts are likely to cost you hundreds of dollars in repairs,  Therefore, be smart and insist on brand-name parts by Clark for your car .

(D) parts that satisfy our government standards are not as poorly constructed as cheap foreign-made parts

If we negate this, the conclusion that we must choose the Clark brand falls apart. since Clarks brand would be as cheap as others and would start causing hundreds of dollers in repairs.

what is OA

jade3 · Answer

The author is differentiating between “foreign-made parts” and “Clark brand-name parts” and differentiating factor is “government automotive test”. Choice D is aptly capturing this point.

Hence IMO the answer is D

gurpreet07 · Answer

Yes the OA is D.........

was confused a little bit..

fall2009 · Answer

Why not C?
The author convinces to buy only Clark-made parts because they meet all the Goverment standards, and convinces not to buy foreign made parts. What if foreign made parts also meet the Goverment standards? So why only insist on buying Clark-made ones?

I am still confused.

jade3 · Answer

The argument by stating that “foreign-made parts, you never know which might be reliable” makes a point that there could be some foreign-made parts that are reliable. Hence these parts could satisfy the government standards.

So this cannot be a assumption

s4ur4bh · Answer

I think D.

Whats OA?

Why D?
1. Because I can eliminate A,B and E.
2. C - no where in the passage are we implying that forign made parts do not pass the tests.

metallicafan · Answer

+1 D

If we assume that parts that satisfy our government standards could be as poorly constructed as cheap foreign-made parts, we cannot claim categoricatelly claim that our parts are the best.

apoorv601 · Answer

D
Conclusion - Clark Brand parts are better than foreign parts
Premise - Clark brand parts have undergone govt tests; foreign parts are poorly constructed 
Assumption - parts that satisfy our government standards are not as poorly constructed

applebus · Answer

I am confused between D and E. Can anyone give me an explanation

aragonn · Answer

C is too extreme, can't be the answer
A,B, E eliminated without any doubt.

D

mstrhz · Answer

+1 D
Seems to be most relevant and critical to the question

gauravjauhri · Answer

I think the answer is E, as D states any parts rather E says specifically car parts

kelvin0951 · Answer

The answer is E
(D) parts that satisfy our government standards are not as poorly constructed as cheap foreign-made parts ->   It can't not be D since as it stated, we don't know if the foreign-made parts are reliable or not which means it can be reliable and not all foreign-made parts are poorly constructed  
(E) if parts are made for cars manufactured in our country, they are not poorly constructed --> E is the answer because the ads emphasize that "Clark brand-name parts are made for cars manufactured in this country".

chetan2u · Answer

(B) foreign-made parts are not suitable for cars manufactured in this country..

these is not an assumption--
 With foreign-made parts, you never know which might be reliable and which are cheap look-alikes .
the above statement clearly states that few are cheap look alike and few are reliable but it is difficult to differentiate ..

lynnglenda · Answer

Answer: (D)
Focus on the evidence and conclusion and keep an eye out for what’s missing. The advertisement tries to convince us to buy Clark parts and cites the fact that Clark parts, unlike foreign-made parts, have passed government tests. So Clark parts are subject to government tests, whereas foreign-made parts are not. So what? We still don’t know how tough those tests are. If parts that pass those tests are just as flimsy as cheap foreign parts (the denial of (D)), then Clark parts don’t look so hot after all.

(A) is irrelevant. The issue is the quality of Clark parts, not their availability.

(B) and (C) may strengthen the argument if true, but are not necessary for the argument to stand. Even if some foreign-made parts were suitable for cars in the country (the denial of (B)), or if some foreign-made parts did measure up to our standards (the denial of (C)), Clark parts might still be the smart choice, and so neither (B) nor (C) is the necessary assumption on which the argument depends.

(E) guarantees that all parts made for cars manufactured in our country (including Clark parts) are not poorly constructed. If some of those parts were poorly constructed (the denial of answer choice (E)), then Clark still might be tops, since their parts need not be the flimsy ones.

• Some assumptions may jump right out at you—if not, the Denial Test/Negation Test provides another way of testing the choices. In this question, it may be hard to see why answer choice (D) is necessary until you think of what would happen if it were false. Or, it may be hard to see why (B), (C), and (E) are wrong until you deny them and see that the argument could still be valid.

TheGraceful · Answer

Thanks.
Although I got it wrong with 'C', this most simplistic explanation made sense to me.

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