GMAT Club World Cup 2022 (DAY 1): A recent study of the reading habits

Manhattan Prep Official Explanation:

Step 1: Identify the Question

The words useful to determine in the question stem indicate that this is an Evaluate the Argument question.

Step 2: Deconstruct the Argument

The first two sentences are premises that seem to draw a contrast between the kinds of books that children are likely to finish reading and the kinds of books that are likely to receive awards. In the final sentence, the author provides one more premise—adults give preference to award-winning titles—before concluding that awards discourage children from reading.

Step 3: Pause and State the Goal

For an Evaluate question, the goal is to find the answer that addresses an assumption of the argument. The answer to the question or consideration in the correct answer should help to strengthen or weaken the argument, so it’s important to identify the assumptions of the argument. This argument relies on two key, unstated assumptions:

1) Award-winning books are less likely to have the elements of relatable characters, humor, and fantasy.
2) If children are provided with books that they’re less likely to finish, that discourages reading.

For the first of these assumptions, who says that serious, realistic books can’t also be funny or have relatable characters? The author just assumes that the award-winning books are more lacking in these traits than average.

As for the second assumption, the author is trying to build a case that these awards discourage reading because they entice adults to buy books that kids are apparently less likely to finish. However, even if a kid doesn’t finish a book, does that automatically mean they are discouraged from reading?

Step 4: Work From Wrong to Right

(A) This choice addresses only children who do actually finish a book. It doesn’t address whether children actually will finish books about historical characters. Also, this choice doesn’t indicate whether the books it mentions are award-winners.

(B) The argument already says that children are more likely to finish books with a preferred trait. Beyond that, it isn’t helpful to know anything about completion rates for books with all three traits, especially since there is no information given on how common such books are among regular and award-winning books.

(C) This is tempting because the conclusion states that the awards have an unintended consequence. The award doesn’t have to have the goal of encouraging reading in order for it to have the unintended consequence of discouraging reading. For example, the goal of the award could be to reward talented artists or to increase children’s awareness of historical events.

(D) The final premise establishes that adults are somehow able to give preference to these books, so it isn’t necessary to know that the award is indicated on the cover. As for kids, this might go either way. First, do they know that they are less likely to finish an award-winner? And if so, does this discourage them, or does it enable them to detect and avoid the books they don’t want to read? On its own, this choice does nothing to address the assumptions.

(E) CORRECT. This choice addresses the first assumption. It isn’t clear from the premises that award winners are more likely to lack the three preferred traits. There is also no information about how often non-award winners have these traits. If award-winning books are less likely to have the three preferred traits, then the author’s conclusion may be correct. If, on the other hand, award-winning books are just as likely as other books to have at least one trait from the list, then the author’s conclusion is less likely to be correct.