An online news portal is often one of the first sources to

This is a great question. I could not guess a logical inference till I read the answer choices. I used the following process of elimination to get to an answer.

A)The news portal in question is concerned mostly with contemporary health issues – INCORRECT contemporary health issues are not discussed in the argument

B)News writers are generally unable to tie health-related findings to broader discussions – INCORRECT – news writers and broader discussions are not discussed in the argument, the topic is related to readers and not writers

C)Readers depend on this news portal for their information about the cosmetics industry – CORRECT – although it is a strong statement, the subject of this statement is “readers” which is related to the premise… “its readers are unlikely to have much knowledge…”. Litmus test: can this statement be proven with the given information? Yes – if readers do not depend on this news portal for their information, then they are likely to get information beyond health effects of cosmetic products.

D)Information about cosmetic products is seldom useful to people in the health industry – INCORRECT – “people in the health industry” is out of the scope because the premise mainly leads us to an inference related to “readers of this specific news portal”

E)News coverage often distorts health-related findings to boost readership – INCORRECT - distortion of findings and boosting readership is not the topic of the passage

I would go with C. If readers did not use the portal as a source for their information on cosmetics, then the following claim in the argument cannot be true either:

"........its readers are unlikely to have much knowledge of the cosmetics industry beyond those cases where health is concerned."

C for me as well!But took me over 3 mins

My take is Option C. Getting some confidence back after lot of hardwork and scoring pathetic 30 in my last GMAT

Interesting question though. So what we have here...

"A news portal reports that certain compunds found in cosmetics have unforeseen health effects. Readers are unlikely to have much knowledge of the cosmetics industry beyond those cases where health is concerned"

Now let's evaluate the options:
A)The news portal in question is concerned mostly with contemporary health issues - "No. Nowhere it states that new portal concerned with modern health issues. Extreme case so reject"

B)News writers are generally unable to tie health-related findings to broader discussions - "Broader discussions??? News writers?? NOOOO"

C)Readers depend on this news portal for their information about the cosmetics industry - "Bingo. read the last sentence. Readers are unlikely...why because they depends only on this news portal. hence the correct answer"

D)Information about cosmetic products is seldom useful to people in the health industry - "Health industry...hmm..not at all related"

E)News coverage often distorts health-related findings to boost readership - "Naa...we can't make this extreme assumption / inference "

Thanks,
Chanakya

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