ykaiim wrote:
In Brindon County, virtually all of the fasteners—such as nuts, bolts, and screws—used by workshops and manufacturing firms have for several years been supplied by the Brindon Bolt Barn, a specialist wholesaler. In recent months many of Brindon County’s workshops and manufacturing firms have closed down, and no new ones have opened. Therefore, the Brindon Bolt Barn will undoubtedly show a sharp decline in sales volume and revenue for this year as compared to last year.
The argument depends on assuming which of the following?
A. Last year the Brindon Bolt Barn’s sales volume and revenue were significantly
higher than they had been the previous year.
B. The workshops and manufacturing firms that have remained open have a smaller
volume of work to do this year than they did last year.
C. Soon the Brindon Bolt Barn will no longer be the only significant supplier of
fasteners to Brindon County’s workshops.
D. The Brindon Bolt Barn’s operating expenses have not increased this year.
E. The Brindon Bolt Barn is not a company that gets the great majority of its
business from customers outside Brindon County.
I marked the OA but I want to check my reasoning. So, please explain your answer.
dwivedys wrote:
Is it B? E expands the scope to outside brindon country. A and C are irrelevant. D if anything weakens the argument and cannot be an assumption. Pls provide OA.
The issue of scope is often misapplied to assumption questions. An assumption is a piece of information that is altogether missing from the argument; it is
completely new information that, if true, makes the conclusion more believable.
The answer should make the conclusion that
sales will drop because there are fewer Brindon firms&workshops more believable.
A. What happened last year is irrelevant to the future prediction for sales based on loss of clientele in Brindon.
B. Even if the Brindon clientele (firms and workshops) have a smaller volume of work, Brindon Bolt Barn may still have clientele elsewhere, in which case sales might not drop.
C. If Brindon Bolt Barn's competition increases, then sales declines will not have resulted from the loss of clientele.
D. Operating expenses are not related to sales.
E. Correct: If Brindon Bolt Barn's loses its Brindon clientele AND has little other clientele to rely on, then it is safe to conclude that sales will decline due to the loss of Brindon's firms and workshops.
A good break down of how to approach conclusion and assumption questions can be found in the Critical Reasoning I lesson at gmaxonline.
If I apply negation technique to option 'E', it is as wrong as option 'B'.
If Brindon Bolt Barn does not have clientele outside the country and number of open stores has declined, but at the same time sales of existing stores has increased significantly, then also conclusion will fall apart.
The only reason I can see to select B over E is that B does not specifically talk about Brindon Bolt Barn company, it talks about any warehouses. Please share your view. Thanks!!