Every book written by June Summers, winner of the Booker Prize, has received critical acclaim from literary reviewers the world over. Moreover, five of her novels have been on the best-seller list over the past decade. Thus, her latest novel, despite initially having earned a rather tepid review in the New York Review of Books, will in all likelihood be another best seller, since Summers has managed to achieve such unparalleled popularity and an international reader base. Which of the following is an assumption on which the argument is based? A. Prominent and widely-read publications, such as the New York Review of Books, base their selection of the subjects they review on contemporary readership trends. B. Readers of the critical reviews are easily influenced by the articles they read and are likely to base their purchases on the advice of those they consider professional assessors. C. It is often the case that when a reader takes a favorable view to the book he or she has recently read, the reader is more likely to search for and read reviews of the book. D. The first book Summers wrote after graduating Summa Cum Laud from the creative writing program and Mr. Hartford University received first place in the Mt. Hartford Up-and-Coming-Authors Competition. E. Literary reviews around the world tend to vary little among publications despite the diversity of international interests and standards.

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Every book written by June Summers, winner of the Booker Prize, has re

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Mavisdu1017

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IanStewart

This question was just revived by the Verbal Bot, so I'm replying to something years old, but none of the answers here is right. Answer A is not an assumption; it is not some unstated thing that needs to be true for the conclusion to be true. The question really means to ask what might strengthen the argument.

IanStewart hi expert, yes I agree with you, I feel A is a strengthener too. And if we reframe the question to a strengthening question, do you think C is also okay? As C also means sales of a book will not be influenced by the review, cuz people couldn’t see the reviews before they buy the book. Hope to get your ideas. Much thanks.

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And if we reframe the question to a strengthening question, do you think C is also okay? As C also means the popularity of a book is not determined by the review. Hope to get your ideas. Much thanks.

I actually don't even think A is a very good answer if it's a strengthen question, but it would clearly be the best of the five choices. Answer C is a bit strange here -- it talks about what people do after they finish reading a book they like. People then go read reviews of the book. Presumably if people have already read the book, they have already bought it, so it doesn't really matter what they do afterwards, and C doesn't seem relevant to the argument to me. What we're really concerned about is whether the bad review will affect book sales, so we're concerned about the people who will read the review before deciding to buy the book.

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Mavisdu1017

And if we reframe the question to a strengthening question, do you think C is also okay? As C also means the popularity of a book is not determined by the review. Hope to get your ideas. Much thanks.

IanStewart Yes, don’t you think C means sales of a book will not be influenced by the review? cuz people Won’t read reviews before they buy the book. So why irrelevant?

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Yes, don’t you think C means sales of a book will not be influenced by the review? cuz people Won’t read reviews before they buy the book. So why irrelevant?

I think you're reading C to mean something that it doesn't say. C says people will read a review if they like a book. But C does not say people only read reviews after they read and like a book. There can still be lots of people reading reviews before deciding whether to buy and read a book.

That said, I don't think this question deserves any attention, since even the question itself (it's not an assumption question) is flawed.

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