Leading book publishers had predicted that the rampant illegal sharing

Question

Leading book publishers had predicted that the rampant illegal sharing of books online would have an extremely detrimental impact on the sale of their books. However, the more illegal online sharing sites increase in popularity, the more physical books are being sold.

Which of the following options best explains why the sales of physical books have been increasing with the increase in online piracy?

(A) The illegal sharing of books online has not become as popular as was expected.

(B) People in general find it more difficult to read books on a computer screen than reading a physical book.

(C) Book publishers have, in the last few years, invested heavily in advertising their books.

(D) A lot of people have discovered new authors through online book sharing sites and subsequently bought other books written by these authors because it is easier to read a physical book.

(E) The government has introduced heavy fines for those downloading books from online sharing sites.

This is a  CR Butler Question

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muuss · Answer

A.The illegal sharing of books online has not become as popular as was expected.- does not give the link why the sales of physical books have been increasing 
(B) People in general find it more difficult to read books on a computer screen than reading a physical book.- So? Does that mean people will buy physical books after finding them online, but they might not buy the book? not sure
(C) Book publishers have, in the last few years, invested heavily in advertising their books.- What does it have to do with the increase in online piracy
(D) A lot of people have discovered new authors through online book sharing sites and subsequently bought other books written by these authors because it is easier to read a physical book. - Correct, the people who would not have found otherwise are buying the books
(E) The government has introduced heavy fines for those downloading books from online sharing sites.-Irrelevant

Dereno · Answer

Leading book publishers had predicted that the rampant illegal sharing of books online will have a greater negative impact on the sale of their books.

However, the more the illegal sharing of book sites increased, the sale of books is also increasing.

We need to explain the paradox.

(A) The illegal sharing of books online has not become as popular as was expected.

Option A is contradictory to the question stem . Hence wrong

(B) People in general find it more difficult to read books on a computer screen than reading a physical book.

Option B - if people find difficult to read via the computers, then the online popularity might have declined. This is contradictory to the question statements. Hence, wrong.

(C) Book publishers have, in the last few years, invested heavily in advertising their books.

Option C is wrong bcoz it provides no linkage between books and online sites.

(D) A lot of people have discovered new authors through online book sharing sites and subsequently bought other books written by these authors because it is easier to read a physical book.
 
This is the most correct answer - as it explains the increase in popularity of the online book sharing sites and the manner it positively boosted the sale of physical books. Thus, resolving the paradox.

(E) The government has introduced heavy fines for those downloading books from online sharing sites.

If the government has issued heavy fines for downloading books from online, then the sites must have faced a drop in popularity and user access. Eventually leading to the dip in book sales. Hence, wrong.

Option D

Aakkashsingh · Answer

Expectation   - Piracy of books will negatively impact sales. 
  Reality   - Rise in piracy -> Rise in book sales.

A - Does not explain the direct relation between piracy and sales.   Reject . 
B - Might be, but it is quite subjective and too specific to select right away.   Hold   on to look for a better answer. 
C - Rise in piracy website popularity is connected to a rise in sales. Advertising of books does not explain that.   Reject . 
D - Yes, directly explains how the rise in piracy websites affects sales.   Correct .  Reject B.  
E - If this were true, how would popularity even rise?   Reject.

Bunuel · Answer

Official Explanation

An explain question will never contain an argument so don’t waste your time looking for the conclusion, evidence, and assumption. Instead try to quickly paraphrase the contradiction in the stimulus—it was expected that people will stop buying books because they could now download books for free from illegal online book sharing sites. However, as the free illegal book sharing sites gain popularity, the sales of physical books have actually increased. The correct option needs to explain why this has been the case.

Let’s take a look at each option in the question above:

(A) This option directly questions a fact mentioned in the stimulus, which is something that can never be done on any CR question. The arguments states that illegal online book sharing is becoming more and more popular and we need to accept this fact as it is. We just need to show the connection between this and the fact that the sales of physical books have also been growing similarly.

(B) This looks very good. However, notice that it just provides you with a reason why people may not want to read books online. So, in this case the sales of physical books should have remained unaffected or declined marginally. Then why have the sales been increasing? This option doesn’t explain this fact. Remember that the correct answer has to explain both sets of facts and not just one of them.

(C) This again addresses one part of the contradiction—why have the sales of books been increasing. But this option does not show the link between increase in illegal online sharing of books and the increase in sales of physical books.

(D) The correct answer.  This choice correctly identifies a link between the two sets of facts mentioned in the stimulus. People discover new authors through online book sharing sites, they like the book that they have read, and so they subsequently buy other books by these authors in the physical format because it is easier to read in this form.

(E) Like B, in this case also the sales of physical books should have remained steady or changed slightly but what explains the increase in sales of physical books?

Based on the above analysis, we can arrive at certain tips to keep in mind while attempting Explain the Paradox questions.

Leading book publishers had predicted that the rampant illegal sharing

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GMAT Critical Reasoning (CR) Questions

Leading book publishers had predicted that the rampant illegal sharing

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