Many television viewers own videocassette recorders (VCR’s). Companies

Many television viewers own videocassette recorders (VCR’s). Companies that advertise on television complain that VCR ownership hurts their business, since a VCR makes it possible to view television programs without watching the commercials. Indeed, two-thirds of those who tape programs on a VCR edit out the commercials when viewing the programs.

Which of the following, if true, would most strengthen the companies’ complaint that VCR ownership is currently hurting their business?

(A) The methods for determining audience size, which in turn determines charges for advertising time, count households that are merely recording a program as households that are watching it. -CORRECT. Suppose there are 10 households, out of which 8 record using VCR. The method for determining the audience size takes into account all 8 households as potential loss even though only 4 out of them might be actually watching the programs. Thus, based on these figures the advertising companies can say that they are loosing 8 potential customers and thus argue against VCR. [Seems the only plausible understanding, please correct me if my understanding us wrong]

(B) VCR manufacturers who advertise on television would themselves suffer the damage, if any, to advertisers’ interests that is caused by VCR’s. -Argument is about advertisers and not VCR manufacturers.

(C) There are VCR’s that are in the early stages of development that will automatically edit out commercials during the recording process. -We are worried about the present.

(D) Those who tape programs on VCR’s, but who do not edit out commercials when viewing the programs, tape more often than those who do edit out the commercials. -This is a weakner

(E) Some television commercials are as entertaining or informative as the programs they interrupt. -This is a fact. Out of scope.

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Kudos if it helps !

The argument falls into X causes Y type — VCR ownership is currently hurting their business or VCR ownership is currently causing business damage to advertisers

The strengthen option will be an additional premise that will be pointing in the same direction.


It uses circular reasoning — if it causes damage, VCR companies that advertise will also suffer damage. So what is option saying, is it causing damage or is it not causing damage? It is just saying drawing out the deduction if the argument is true. It is not giving evidence to prove that the argument is true.

Option (C) is incorrect as it talks about VCRs in the future and not those currently in use but the argument talks about VCRs currently hurting the advertisers’ business.

Option (D) says that those who tape frequently edit fewer number of times, a situation that weakens the argument.

Option (A) offers an additional premise that supports the argument. It says that when companies pay for advertising they are paying even for viewers who are not watching. So not only are VCRs resulting in fewer people watching their ads and hence affecting revenues, but also resulting in lower profits since they are still paying the same amount in cost. So earlier if 100 people watched, they paid for 100. Now only 50 are watching, which is a reason why they argue that VCRs are hurting their business, but still they are paying for 100, which is the information that option provides.

In first go I didn't even understand what is going on. whenever this happens i simply break it down with e-gmat CR framework. always works. lets try it here.

VCR = OLD gen retro tech. it uses cassettes as memory dump and access it later. this last line should be in premise else lot many people will feel blank about it.

Premise: television + VCR + advertise = challenge for ad companies. Why? those who record and dump on cassettes, usually edit out the commercials. This way when someone is watching a recording, there is no ads. must be the best time ever. anyways i have never used any.

Conclusion: two-thirds of those who tape programs on a VCR edit out the commercials when viewing the programs.

pre-thinking: Let say 100 people are watching program live with ads. let say all of them are recording. now we have 100 cassettes to watch it from. now if they try to make multiple copies then we have many more copies. now either out of humanity or business point of view, they must be distributing it. Long story short, Companies that advertise on television says that just 100 people have watched the ad while many have watched the program. definitely valid complain. on these lines lets start POE. look for option that says business is hurting.

Which of the following, if true, would most strengthen the companies’ complaint that VCR ownership is currently hurting their business?

(A) The methods for determining audience size, which in turn determines charges for advertising time, count households that are merely recording a program as households that are watching it. ---- from pre-thinking audience size will come out to be 100. charges for these 100 audience 100x. what it should be. it should include many more who are watching on cassettes. definetly explaining how business is hurting.
(B) VCR manufacturers who advertise on television would themselves suffer the damage, if any, to advertisers’ interests that is caused by VCR’s. --- yes true, but it talking about a sub part of problem. and definitely not explaining it.
(C) There are VCR’s that are in the early stages of development that will automatically edit out commercials during the recording process. --- more problems, no solution.
(D) Those who tape programs on VCR’s, but who do not edit out commercials when viewing the programs, tape more often than those who do edit out the commercials. --- interesting choice. out of 100 , 60 do not edit out ads while 40 does that. now it is saying that problem came down to 40%. but it is still a problem. Where is the explanation for it.
(E) Some television commercials are as entertaining or informative as the programs they interrupt. --- out of scope.

Premise:
Two-thirds of those who tape programs on a VCR edit out the commercials.
Conclusion:
VCR ownership hurts businesses that advertise on TV.

When faced with a strengthen or weaken CR, do not try to predict what the OA will SAY.
Instead, ask yourself what the correct answer must DO.
Here, the correct answer must show that TV advertisers are being hurt by VCR ownership.

A: The methods for determining audience size, which in turn determines charges for advertising time, count households that are merely recording a program as households that are watching it.
Here, TV advertisers are paying for viewers who likely use their VCRs to edit out the commercials, making the commercials worthless and STRENGTHENING the conclusion that TV advertisers are being hurt by VCR ownership.

Hi VeritasKarishma

Could you please me with this question. I do not understand how option A strengthen the argument

Many TV viewers own VCRs.
two-thirds of those who tape programs on a VCR edit out the commercials when viewing the programs.

Advertisers are complaining that VCRs hurt their business.

What will strengthen this?

(A) The methods for determining audience size, which in turn determines charges for advertising time, count households that are merely recording a program as households that are watching it.

Correct. They pay advertising charges for all - those viewing the programs and those recording but out of those recording, only 1/3rd are actually viewing the ads. Rest are skipping the ads though advertisers are paying charges for them too. Hence, it does hurt the advertisers business. Their cost is higher than the exposure they are getting in return.

(B) VCR manufacturers who advertise on television would themselves suffer the damage, if any, to advertisers’ interests that is caused by VCR’s.

Irrelevant. We are talking about all advertisers.

(C) There are VCR’s that are in the early stages of development that will automatically edit out commercials during the recording process.

Irrelevant. We are talking about "currently hurting their business". Future is irrelevant.

(D) Those who tape programs on VCR’s, but who do not edit out commercials when viewing the programs, tape more often than those who do edit out the commercials.

This, if anything, weakens the claim a tiny bit. This says that those who tape but still watch the ads tape more often. So these people are viewing the ads. Those who edit out the ads, tape fewer times (so they may be viewing directly more often). Hence the damage to advertisers is less.

(E) Some television commercials are as entertaining or informative as the programs they interrupt.

Irrelevant

Answer (A)

Hi, Can someone explain what is the difference between taping a program and recording a program ?
Non native english speaker here. I got confused due to the language of the argument.

I believe the clear reason for A to be the correct choice is that there is a possibility that more house holds than the household that have recorded might be viewing the recorded tapes containing no ads. Thus loss in viewer ship to advertisers must be higher than initial estimates

A. The methods for determining audience size, which in turn determines charges for advertising time, count households that are merely recording a program as households that are watching it.


here, charges for advertising time means charges for advertising time for the advertising company.

So, to determine audience size it is told that we count households merely recording a program as households that are watching it.

say, 10 households have TV+VCR

say 3 record in VCR and edit out the commercial
and 7 watch the whole TV program with commercial

the advertising company is unfairly charged for 3 households (the folks in the house don't even watch the advertisement, then why is the advertising company being charged?)

Let's hack the argument.

Question stem type: Strengthening some part of the argument. Note: First, look at the question stem but its structure not its meaning. If you look at the meaning, you loose your attention by thinking over and over the question while reading.

First sentence: Many television viewers own videocassette recorders (VCR’s). ---> Background info.

Companies that advertise on television complain that VCR ownership hurts their business, since a VCR makes it possible to view television programs without watching the commercials. --> Evidence and its proof.

Indeed, two-thirds of those who tape programs on a VCR edit out the commercials when viewing the programs.--> another proof which supports the evidence. (2/3 is used. So we may relate to numbers in explaining the right answer. )

Which of the following, if true, would most strengthen the companies’ complaint that VCR ownership is currently hurting their business?---> Question says to support the evidence. So, if any answer below explains something new relevant to the argument, it is the right answer.


(A) The methods for determining audience size, which in turn determines charges for advertising time, count households that are merely recording a program as households that are watching it.---> It conveys that people are watching what they record. It support the main proof. So this may be right. We should look at other answers.

(B) VCR manufacturers who advertise on television would themselves suffer the damage, if any, to advertisers’ interests that is caused by VCR’s.---> reexplains the argument in a general condition deeply. We don't need to reexplain the argument, but we should explain the main proof to most strengthen the evidence. Hence, OUT.

(C) There are VCR’s that are in the early stages of development that will automatically edit out commercials during the recording process.---> I, myself, got trapped into this guy without noticing 'will'. We don't care for future as we are talking about the present proccess. Hence, OUT.

(D) Those who tape programs on VCR’s, but who do not edit out commercials when viewing the programs, tape more often than those who do edit out the commercials.------> This may weaken the evidence rather than strengthen. So, OUT.

(E) Some television commercials are as entertaining or informative as the programs they interrupt.---> This is general and irrelevant to the topic. So, OUT.

So, The right answer is A

Understanding the argument -
Conclusion - Companies that advertise on television complain that VCR ownership hurts their business. Why?
Because a VCR makes it possible to view television programs without watching the commercials.
Additionally, two-thirds of those who tape programs on a VCR edit out the commercials when viewing the programs.


(A) The methods for determining audience size, which in turn determines charges for advertising time, count households that are merely recording a program as households that are watching it. -
Out of 99 total - 66 remove ads and then watch without ads. 33 watch with ads. What if the companies consider the 33 who watch with ads as their audience size then 100% of the audience should be watching the ads, but what if they consider all 99 as their possible customer base, now majority don't watch ads - that hurts their business. Strengthen.

(B) VCR manufacturers who advertise on television would themselves suffer the damage, if any, to advertisers’ interests that is caused by VCR’s. - out of scope.

(C) There are VCR’s that are in the early stages of development that will automatically edit out commercials during the recording process. - The future is not relevant here. The argument says "VCR ownership HURTS (present tense) their business" and not "WILL HURT". So this is out of scope.

(D) Those who tape programs on VCR’s, but who do not edit out commercials when viewing the programs, tape more often than those who do edit out the commercials. - weakner.

(E) Some television commercials are as entertaining or informative as the programs they interrupt. - out of scope.