Both foreign and domestic cigarettes are widely

Question

Which of the following most logically completes the argument?

Both foreign and domestic cigarettes are widely sold in the Gondian Republic, but until three years ago advertisements for foreign cigarettes were banned within the country to protect Gondian tobacco companies. Since then, the proportion of cigarette sales that are accounted for by foreign tobacco companies has not increased, even though foreign cigarettes have been heavily advertised. This does not show that brand advertising has little effect on Gondian smoking habits, however, since total cigarette consumption has risen and ___________________.

A) domestic cigarettes have always accounted for most cigarette sales in the Gondian Republic

B) Gondian tobacco companies have increased the number and sophistication of their advertisements to match those of their foreign competitors

C) neighboring countries have also seen a rise in total cigarette consumption, even though there has been no change in regulations governing cigarette advertising in any of those countries

D) among the tobacco companies whose cigarettes are widely available in the Gondian Republic, the great majority are foreign companies

E) Gondian tobacco companies formulate their cigarettes especially to appeal to the taste of Gondian cigarette consumers

franktangxy · Accepted Answer

How to understand foreign cigarettes were banned and it have been heavily advertised?

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sayan640 · Answer

B should be the answer. 
Brand advertising has some effect on Gondian smoking habits because even though the proportion of foreign cigarettes has not increased , total cigarette consumption has increased and that means that gondian cigarette consumption has also increased significantly to nullify the increase in the consumption of foreign cigarettes . 
So any option which can show a reason for the increase in the consumption of Gondian cigarettes will be our answer .
Option B does that.
If Gondian companies also advertised their cigarettes heavily and the quality of their advertisement matched that of their foreign counterparts then it gives a good reason to say that the brand advertising had some effect in the increase of consumption of gondian cigarettes and subsequently in the increase of cumulative consumption of cigarettes. 
B is our answer.

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Rosso · Answer

MartyMurray   Bunuel   KarishmaB

KarishmaB · Answer

Understanding the argument: Argument : Both foreign and domestic cigarettes are widely sold. Till 3 years ago foreign cig ads were banned (which means now they are not) But the proportion of cigarette sales that are accounted for by foreign tobacco companies has not increased, even though foreign cigarettes have been heavily advertised. (foreign cigs still account for say 30% of cig sales, same as 3 years ago) (So we might be tempted to think that brand ads have no impact on smoking habits) Author's Conclusion : This does not show that brand advertising has little effect on Gondian smoking habits, however, since (now a premise will follow) Premise: total cigarette consumption has risen and _____________ The author claims that brand ads do have effect on smoking habits. We need something that will support his conclusion. We have to explain why Ads do have an impact and why foreign cig brands market share has not increased despite lot of ads. The author gives us "total cigarette consumption has risen" which shows that ads have impact. We need an option that supports his claim further. A) domestic cigarettes have always accounted for most cigarette sales in the Gondian Republic We are talking about proportion not increasing. Whether that proportion was more than 50% or less is irrelevant. B) Gondian tobacco companies have increased the number and sophistication of their advertisements to match those of their foreign competitors Correct. This option says that domestic ads have also increased to match those of foreign ads. So foreign ads did not see an increase in its market share despite their ads because domestic companies also advertised heavily. So overall cig consumption increased but proportion stayed the same. So it supports that ads do have an impact. C) neighboring countries have also seen a rise in total cigarette consumption, even though there has been no change in regulations governing cigarette advertising in any of those countries Irrelevant. Why neighboring countries have seen a rise in total cigarette consumption without change in regulations we don't know. It doesn't support the author's claim that ads are impactful. D) among the tobacco companies whose cigarettes are widely available in the Gondian Republic, the great majority are foreign companies As we said in option (A) above, we are talking about proportion not increasing. Whether that proportion was more than 50% or less is irrelevant. E) Gondian tobacco companies formulate their cigarettes especially to appeal to the taste of Gondian cigarette consumers This seems to say that ads do not have an impact. That is not what our author is claiming. Hence it doesn't support his claim. Answer (B) Here are two discussions on Best Completes questions: https://youtu.be/JlSkXDplwzE https://youtu.be/02hcfVqIr-g

MartyMurray · Answer

Which of the following most logically completes the argument?

Both foreign and domestic cigarettes are widely sold in the Gondian Republic, but until three years ago advertisements for foreign cigarettes were banned within the country to protect Gondian tobacco companies. Since then, the proportion of cigarette sales that are accounted for by foreign tobacco companies has not increased, even though foreign cigarettes have been heavily advertised. This does not show that brand advertising has little effect on Gondian smoking habits, however, since total cigarette consumption has risen and ___________________.

We see that the following precedes the blank:

This does not show that brand advertising has little effect on Gondian smoking habits, however, since ... ___________________.

In this type of context, "since" is followed by evidence that supports what precedes "since." So, the choice that fills the blank must support "This does not show that brand advertising has little effect on Gondian smoking habits."

Looking above in the passage to see what "this" refers to, we see the following:

the proportion of cigarette sales that are accounted for by foreign tobacco companies has not increased, even though foreign cigarettes have been heavily advertised

So, the correct answer will support the idea that the fact that foreign tobacco companies' market share has not increased even though foreign cigarettes have been advertised does not mean that brand advertising does not affect smoking habits.

In other words, the correct answer will show that, even though the proportion of cigarette sales accounted for by foreign tobacco companies has not increased, it could be that brand advertising DOES affect smoking habits.

(A) domestic cigarettes have always accounted for most cigarette sales in the Gondian Republic

The fact that domestic cigarettes have always accounted for most cigarette sales does not mean that brand advertising affects smoking habits even though the proportion of cigarette sales accounted for by foreign tobacco companies has not increased.

After all, regardless of whether domestic cigarettes have always accounted for most cigarette sales in the Gondian Republic, if brand advertising works, then we'd expect foreign companies' proportion of cigarette sales to have increased once they started advertising.

So, this choice doesn't indicate that it could be that brand advertising works.

Eliminate.

(B) Gondian tobacco companies have increased the number and sophistication of their advertisements to match those of their foreign competitors

This choice is interesting.

After all, if Gondian tobacco companies have increased the number and sophistication of their advertisements, then we could see how it could be that advertising works even though foreign companies' proportion of cigarette sales has not increased since they started advertising.

If this choice is true, it could be the case that advertising does work, but foreign companies' proportion of cigarette sales has not increased because Gondian companies responded to foreign companies advertising by advertising more themselves.

So, this choice provides reason to believe that advertising may work even though foreign companies' proportion of cigarette sales has not increased since they started advertising.

Keep.

(C) neighboring countries have also seen a rise in total cigarette consumption, even though there has been no change in regulations governing cigarette advertising in any of those countries

If anything, this choice does the opposite of what we need.

After all, if neighboring countries have also seen a rise in total cigarette consumption, even though there has been no change in regulations governing cigarette advertising in any of those countries, then the fact that total cigarette consumption in the Gondian Republic has increased no longer appears to indicate that advertising works. After all, consumption increased where advertising did not increase.

Eliminate.

(D) among the tobacco companies whose cigarettes are widely available in the Gondian Republic, the great majority are foreign companies

If anything, this choice does the opposite of what we need.

After all, if this choice is true, then a possible issue that would have kept Gondians from purchasing foreign cigarettes is eliminated. In other words, if this choice is true, then we know that it's not the case that advertising by foreign companies theoretically would work but foreign cigarettes are not widely available. So, we know that lack of availability is not the reason why foreign companies' market share did not increase.

So, this choice leaves the situation appearing to indicate that brand advertising by foreign companies does not work. After all, foreign cigarettes are available, but advertising still didn't cause foreign companies' market share to increase.

Eliminate.

(E) Gondian tobacco companies formulate their cigarettes especially to appeal to the taste of Gondian cigarette consumers

This choice is tricky because it could explain why sales of foreign cigarettes didn't increase even though foreign tobacco companies started advertising. The reason could be that Gondian tobacco companies formulate their cigarettes to appeal to the taste of Gondian cigarette consumers, so Gondian consumers buy Gondian cigarettes regardless of whether foreign companies advertise.

At the same time, the issue with this choice is that we're not simply looking for an explanation for why sales of foreign cigarettes didn't increase even though foreign tobacco companies started advertising. We're looking for information that indicates that advertising works even though the proportion of sales attributable to foreign companies didn't increase.

So, notice that the fact that Gondian tobacco companies formulate their cigarettes especially to appeal to the taste of Gondian cigarette consumers would be a reason why brand advertising DOES NOT work. It could be that advertising doesn't work because consumers choose cigarettes formulated to appeal to them regardless of how much advertising there is for other cigarettes.

So, this choice does basically the opposite of what we need: it provides a reason why foreign cigarettes companies' advertising would not work rather than supports the idea that advertising does work.

Eliminate.

Correct answer:  B

Both foreign and domestic cigarettes are widely

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Both foreign and domestic cigarettes are widely

Prep Toolkit

615 to 715 in 15 Days (Ria's Strategies)

More than Quant/Verbal Abilities: Speed vs. Accuracy

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From 555 to 765: 210-point Improvement

Perfect 805 Score Debrief by Julia

My Rewards