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Among the more effective kinds of publicity that publishers can get for a new book is to have excerpts of it published in a high-circulation magazine soon before the book is published. The benefits of such excerption include not only a sure increase in sales but also a fee paid by the magazine to the book’s publisher.
Which of the following conclusions is best supported by the information above?
(A) The number of people for whom seeing an excerpt of a book in a magazine provides an adequate substitute for reading the whole book is smaller than the number for whom the excerpt stimulates a desire to read the book.
(B) Because the financial advantage of excerpting a new book in a magazine usually accrues to the book’s publisher, magazine editors are unwilling to publish excerpts from new books.
(C) In calculating the total number of copies that a book has sold, publishers include sales of copies of magazines that featured an excerpt of the book.
(D) The effectiveness of having excerpts of a book published in a magazine, measured in terms of increased sales of a book, is proportional to the circulation of the magazine in which the excerpts are published.
(E) Books that are suitable for excerpting in high-circulation magazines sell more copies than books that are not suitable for excerpting.
Which of the following conclusions is best supported by the information above?
(A) The number of people for whom seeing an excerpt of a book in a magazine provides an adequate substitute for reading the whole book is smaller than the number for whom the excerpt stimulates a desire to read the book.
(B) Because the financial advantage of excerpting a new book in a magazine usually accrues to the book’s publisher, magazine editors are unwilling to publish excerpts from new books.
(C) In calculating the total number of copies that a book has sold, publishers include sales of copies of magazines that featured an excerpt of the book.
(D) The effectiveness of having excerpts of a book published in a magazine, measured in terms of increased sales of a book, is proportional to the circulation of the magazine in which the excerpts are published.
(E) Books that are suitable for excerpting in high-circulation magazines sell more copies than books that are not suitable for excerpting.
nightblade354
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pikolo2510
Hi pikolo2510,
Let's analyze A and D!
Among the more effective kinds of publicity that publishers can get for a new book is to have excerpts of it published in a high-circulation magazine soon before the book is published. The benefits of such excerption include not only a sure increase in sales but also a fee paid by the magazine to the book's publisher.
Which of the following conclusions is best supported by the information above?
-- This is an inference question, meaning the answer HAS to be true.
A) The number of people for whom seeing an excerpt of a book in a magazine provides an adequate substitute for reading the whole book is smaller than the number for whom the excerpt stimulates a desire to read the book. -- More people who see the magazine excerpt buy the book than those who don't, therefore sales go up.
D) The effectiveness of having excerpts of a book published in a magazine, measured in terms of increased sales of a book, is proportional to the circulation of the magazine in which the excerpts are published. -- Your line of thinking is correct, but with a little flaw. This answer talks about proportions. The answer is saying that if the magazine is widely circulated, more will buy the book. If the magazine is less circulated, less will buy the book. The issue,
here, though it may make sense in reality, is that the we cannot say for 100% certainty whether this is correct or not, as the question never compares the rate of distribution to the success of sales. This can't be proven, so it cannot be an inference. If this were an assumption question, this might be a nice choice.
Does this help?
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joonhy
ANALYZE THE STIMULUS:
Fact: Among the more effective kinds of publicity that publishers can get for a new book is to have excerpts of it published in a high-circulation magazine soon before the book is published.
Fact: The benefits of such excerption include not only a sure increase in sales but also a fee paid by the magazine to the book's publisher.
ANALYZE EACH ANSWER:
A) The number of people for whom seeing an excerpt of a book in a magazine provides an adequate substitute for reading the whole book is smaller than the number for whom the excerpt stimulates a desire to read the book.
Correct. KEY words in the stimulus are “increase in sales”. ==> when people read the excerpts, they desire to read a whole book ==> They will buy the book ==> sales increase.
B) Because the financial advantage of excerpting a new book in a magazine usually accrues to the book's publisher, magazine editors are unwilling to publish excerpts from new books.
Wrong. Totally wrong, the stimulus does not say “magazine editor unwilling to publish excerpts”.
C) In calculating the total number of copies that a book has sold, publishers include sales of copies of magazines that featured an excerpt of the book.
Wrong. Nothing about the formula to calculate the total number of copies sold.
D) The effectiveness of having excerpts of a book published in a magazine, measured in terms of increased sales of a book, is proportional to the circulation of the magazine in which the excerpts are published.
Wrong. Nothing about the relationship “effectiveness of having excerpts is proportional to the circulation of the magazine”.
E) Books that are suitable for excerpting in high-circulation magazines sell more copies than book that are not suitable for excerpting.
Wrong. TEMPTING. Even though the books that are suitable for excerpting in high-circulation magazine can increase sales, the stimulus DOES NOT say they sell more copies than other books.
Hope it helps.
General Discussion
Posts: 312
ugimba
Schools: HEC '15 (A)
Posts: 184
The argument only says that the number of tickets sold will increase. Its nowhere mentioned that the number of tickets that will be sold will be proportional to the viewership. So this eliminates D.
IMO A
IMO A
GMAT 1: 650 Q49 V30
Posts: 216
Hi Experts,
Can someone please provide explanation of A vs D.
Help will be appreciated.
Regards,
H
Can someone please provide explanation of A vs D.
Help will be appreciated.
Regards,
H
imhimanshu
(D) The effectiveness of having excerpts of a book published in a magazine, measured in terms of increased sales of a book, is proportional to the circulation of the magazine in which the excerpts are published.
(D) is certainly not correct because of the word 'proportional'. To an extent, we can infer that the circulation of the magazine will have some effect on the sales of the book but proportional means if the circulation doubles, the sales of the book will double too. We cannot conclude that from anything given in the passage.
(A) The number of people for whom seeing an excerpt of a book in a magazine provides an adequate substitute for reading the whole book is smaller than the number for whom the excerpt stimulates a desire to read the book.
Since excerption increases sales, the no. of people who would have bought the book without excerption but will not after reading the excerpt must be lower than the number of people who will buy the book after reading the excerpt but would not have otherwise. Only then will the sales rise due to excerption.
I would like to point out that there is an assumption here in (A): The assumption is that the people for whom seeing an excerpt of a book in a magazine provides an adequate substitute for reading the whole book would have bought the book had they not read the excerpt. But since no other option comes close to being a conclusion, (A) is the best choice.
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I agree that A is the most relevant one among the 5 options.
But, I still don't understand the relationship between the passage and A because A seems like assumption or evidence to support the passage, not the conclusion supported by the passage.
Any explanation would be appreciated!!
But, I still don't understand the relationship between the passage and A because A seems like assumption or evidence to support the passage, not the conclusion supported by the passage.
Any explanation would be appreciated!!
joonhy
Among the more effective kinds of publicity that publishers can get for a new book is to have excerpts of it published in a high-circulation magazine soon before the book is published.
The benefits of such excerption include not only a sure increase in sales but also a fee paid by the magazine to the book's publisher.
Which of the following conclusions is best supported by the information above?
The benefits include increase in sales
A) The number of people for whom seeing an excerpt of a book in a magazine provides an adequate substitute for reading the whole book is smaller than the number for whom the excerpt stimulates a desire to read the book.==> What does this mean?
If the number of people stimulated to buy the book is greater compared to the number of people discouraged to buy the book (because consider "excerpt of a book an adequate substitute for reading") the sales will increase.
This is supported by the passage, because correspond to the one of the benefits of the publicity.
Hope it helps.
joonhy
Actually (A) is an inference from the passage. You can infer/conclude it if what is given in the argument is correct.
The author says that publishing an excerpt is effective. Sales increases and you get a fee.
Since we are given that sales increases, this means that more people buy the book if you publish an excerpt. So even if there are people who do not buy the book after publishing an excerpt because the excerpt is enough for them, there are more people who buy the book because they get tantalized by the excerpt. Only then will the sales rise when you publish an excerpt.
I would like to point out that there is an assumption here in (A): The assumption is that the people for whom seeing an excerpt of a book in a magazine provides an adequate substitute for reading the whole book would have bought the book had they not read the excerpt. But since no other option comes close to being a conclusion, (A) is the best choice.
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Zarrolou
i m confused between A and E..............
anilvb
The reason (E) is not correct:
(E) Books that are suitable for excerpting in high-circulation magazines sell more copies than book that are not suitable for excerpting. - Incorrect
The argument tells you that actual excerption (not excerption suitability) increases sales. Also the comparison "higher" is of the sales of the same book "after excerpt" with "before excerpt". The comparison is not with books whose excerpt is not published or which are not suitable for excerption. Say, a J K Rowling book which is not suitable for excerption will have higher sales than most other books even after they publish excerpts wildly.
Note that the argument only says that if you publish an excerpt, the sales will be higher. Just being suitable for excerption does not increase sales. The point is that books suitable for excerpting COULD sell more copies (compared to what they will sell if they don't publish excerpts).
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VeritasPrepKarishma
Thanks for pointing it out. I was stuck at the same point. My analysis was that let's say 10 people are wiling to buy the book in the beginning, and the excerpt is released to a magazine that is read by 100 people. 60 people are discouraged to buy and 40 are encouraged --> this fact refutes option A but still increases the sale.
My question here is, what if questions like these (with an underlying assumption not so evident) appear in GMAT? is there a way around or do we just rely on our instinct?
Posts: 138
Karishma , although you have explained before but still I fail to understand how come A which is clearly an assumption for the argument be the conclusion ? I would have expected D to be a logical conclusion which relates the circulation of the magazine in which article is appearing to the increased sales. Extrapolating this relation to the logical extremities , if the circulation of magazine is zero ( i.e. no excerpts published in any magazine) , then no increased sale ( i.e. the usual default sale). On the other hand say if the circulation of magazine is high , then highly increased sale.
Clearly the ASSUMPTION over here is that people will be interested to buy the book after reading the excerpt (pt A) . So for e.g. if its a suspense book and the excerpts give away some pointers to the climax , not many people might be interested to buy the book
Clearly the ASSUMPTION over here is that people will be interested to buy the book after reading the excerpt (pt A) . So for e.g. if its a suspense book and the excerpts give away some pointers to the climax , not many people might be interested to buy the book
gauravkaushik8591
The number analysis is not correct. If 10 people were willing to buy the book, the excerpt cannot discourage 60 people since they were not interested in buying in the first place. Only 10 were interested in the first place!
This group - "The number of people for whom seeing an excerpt of a book in a magazine provides an adequate substitute for reading the whole book" has to come from the people who were interested in buying the book in the first place.
The number analysis would be something like this: If 100 people were interested in buying the book initially and then the excerpt was released, 30 of those 100 people were not interested in buying anymore because the excerpt was a good enough substitute for them. But the excerpt has to bring in another '31 or more' people who were not interested initially but are interested now in buying the book. That is when the sales will increase due to the excerpt.
Now, I hope you see that the underlying assumption is clear.
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himanshujovi
(A) is not an assumption. It is a clear inference.
You are given "The benefits of such excerption include not only a sure increase in sales"
The sure increase in sales is given as a fact. It is not the author's opinion. From this fact, you can say that definitely number of people getting encouraged to buy the book is more than the number of people getting discouraged. So from the given data in the argument, you can INFER option (A).
When you have data given and you can infer something from it, it is called an inference/conclusion.
When you have author's opinion (conclusion of the argument) and you need something to be true for the opinion to hold, that is an assumption.
For Example:
Argument 1
All A are B.
All B are C.
You can conclude that: All A are C. This must be true.
Argument 2
All A are B.
All B are C.
If you conclude that 'All C are A' (your opinion, not necessarily a fact), you are assuming that A, B and C overlap.
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Hello,
Can anyone explain why not D....
Well I narrowed down to A and D.. Finally went with D because question stem talks about conclusion but A seems to be assumption...
Interestingly OG suggest that D is incorrect because it talks about "Magazine in general" ... Well same is the case with A also... Then how A could be correct?
Looking for expert reply???
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Can anyone explain why not D....
Well I narrowed down to A and D.. Finally went with D because question stem talks about conclusion but A seems to be assumption...
Interestingly OG suggest that D is incorrect because it talks about "Magazine in general" ... Well same is the case with A also... Then how A could be correct?
Looking for expert reply???
Posted from my mobile device
vikasbansal227
I have explained (A) vs (D) just one post above. As for OG explanation, I don't recall exactly what it said for this question but note that OG is good as a source of questions - for solution explanations you need to look elsewhere.
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Posts: 1,776
Among the more effective kinds of publicity that a traveling circus can get for a new show is to have one act from that show air on a television station with a large audience in a given area shortly before the show is performed live in that area. The benefits of such exposure include not only a sure increase in ticket sales for the show, but also a fee paid by the television station to the traveling circus.
The conclusion is that airing an act on TV guarantees increased ticket sales for the show and a fee paid by the station.
Which of the following is best supported by the information above?
(A) The number of people for whom seeing one act from the show performed on television is an adequate substitute for seeing the show performed live is smaller than the number for whom seeing one act from the show on television stimulates a desire to see the show performed live.
For the TV airing to be beneficial, there has to be more people who are intrigued enough by the TV act to purchase show tickets. If most people see one act and are satisfied ticket sales won't increase at all.
(B) Because the majority of profits derived from airing one act from a show on television usually go to the traveling circus rather than the television station, station executives are unwilling to broadcast single acts from circus shows.
Executive unwillingness cannot be supported with the given information.
(C) In calculating the total number of audience members that a circus show has attracted, traveling circuses include the size of the viewership of television stations that aired a single act from the show.
Cannot be supported
(D) The effectiveness of having a single act from a circus show broadcast on a television station, measured in terms of increased ticket sales for the entire show, is proportional to the viewership size of a television station that broadcasted a single act from the show.A proportional relationship cannot be supported.
(E) Traveling circuses with shows with single acts that are suitable for broadcast on popular television stations attract larger audiences than traveling circuses with shows with single acts not suitable for broadcast on popular television stations.Out of scope
The conclusion is that airing an act on TV guarantees increased ticket sales for the show and a fee paid by the station.
Which of the following is best supported by the information above?
(A) The number of people for whom seeing one act from the show performed on television is an adequate substitute for seeing the show performed live is smaller than the number for whom seeing one act from the show on television stimulates a desire to see the show performed live.
For the TV airing to be beneficial, there has to be more people who are intrigued enough by the TV act to purchase show tickets. If most people see one act and are satisfied ticket sales won't increase at all.
(B) Because the majority of profits derived from airing one act from a show on television usually go to the traveling circus rather than the television station, station executives are unwilling to broadcast single acts from circus shows.
Executive unwillingness cannot be supported with the given information.
(C) In calculating the total number of audience members that a circus show has attracted, traveling circuses include the size of the viewership of television stations that aired a single act from the show.
Cannot be supported
(D) The effectiveness of having a single act from a circus show broadcast on a television station, measured in terms of increased ticket sales for the entire show, is proportional to the viewership size of a television station that broadcasted a single act from the show.A proportional relationship cannot be supported.
(E) Traveling circuses with shows with single acts that are suitable for broadcast on popular television stations attract larger audiences than traveling circuses with shows with single acts not suitable for broadcast on popular television stations.Out of scope
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VeritasPrepKarishma
Karishma I have a question here with regards to D
Suppose if excerpts are not published--out of 100 books we have sales for only 10
if published--60 are the viewers and among 60, 31 found out a substitute while 29 are still going to buy the book
'so if no excerpt----sales is 10
with excerpt---sales= 10+29=39,which means sales have increased even after undermining A
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