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Assuming this is a assumption question I am against the OA here...B is mentioned in the passage.E isnt.

Posted from my mobile device
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nightblade354 GMATNinja gmat1393 chetan2u

Can you take a look at this question? It is pretty close between B and E

- If I negate option E, the arguments fails completely

- If I negate Option B
"The quality of a company’s customer service does not affect some of the voters for the Worst Business of the Year award."
The argument still stands, because customer service doesn't affect some voters but it does affect some voters. The word "Some" is key in option B.

Hence answer should be Option E.
Let me know your thoughts
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The OA as I see has changed from B to E...

B I think is incorrect because
The quality of a company’s customer service affects some of the voters for the Worst Business of the Year award. is a paraphrase of the company did nothing to address its poor customer service, which explains why Chapter won the Worst Business of the Year award again last year.
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Quote:
Two years ago Chapter Internet, the only internet provider in the country to offer high-speed internet access, handily won the Worst Business of the Year award, earning three times as many votes as the company that came in second. Last year Chapter made technological improvements which doubled the average speed of its customers’ internet service. However, the company did nothing to address its poor customer service, which explains why Chapter won the Worst Business of the Year award again last year.

Which of the following is an assumption on which the argument depends?

A) In the voting for last year’s Worst Business of the Year award, Chapter earned at least three times as many votes as did the second-most hated company.

B) The quality of a company’s customer service affects some of the voters for the Worst Business of the Year award.

C) Internet providers are not the only businesses in the running for the Worst Business of the Year award.

D) If Chapter did not hold a monopoly in the high-speed internet industry, market forces would compel it to provide better customer service.

E) Voters for the Worst Business of the Year award are not influenced by previous years’ results.

Explanation: Let us assume that "Voters for the Worst Business of the Year award ARE influenced by previous years’ results". In that case their votes would be an outcome of previous year's results rather than poor customer service. While coming to the conclusion that the award was due to poor customer services, author would have assumed that "Voters for the Worst Business of the Year award ARE NOT influenced by previous years’ results". I prefer E.
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Hi, I think you will have to look into your logic of B.. you are absolutely correct with negation part but somehow have applied it erroneously.

Para argues.. poor customer service leads to the award ...
1) what you are assuming it as " the POOR quality of customer service effects some of the voters", that is these voters have suffered due to the quality.
2) But the poor word is not there. So the choice actually means that " the quality of service affects the voters decision in the way he votes.
So if the 2nd is the case, negation means " none of the voter get influenced by quality of service while they cast their votes. So if they are not influenced by the quality , the connection between customer service and voting is broken and argument falls flat..

If it meant the case 1, the wordings would have been a bit different.


Finally we may disagree but let the OA remain what the institute has to say because you are reading it wrong.
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I choose E
Here is my thought:
poor customer service → the only reason why Chapter won the worst company this year
If the voters are influenced by the previous year's result, they will be more likely to vote for Chapter. It is the stereotype makes the company worst company, not the customer service.
Am I thinking too much?
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I choose E
Here is my thought:
poor customer service → the only reason why Chapter won the worst company this year
If the voters are influenced by the previous year's result, they will be more likely to vote for Chapter. It is the stereotype makes the company worst company, not the customer service.
Am I thinking too much?


This information is from Ron's videos: If you have difficulty in negating the argument use IT IS NOT TRUE THAT BEFORE THE ARGUMENT

b. The quality of a company’s customer service affects some of the voters for the Worst Business of the Year award
nEGATION
it is not true that The quality of a company’s customer service affects some of the voters for the Worst Business of the Year award
means
The quality of a company’s customer service affects none of the voters for the Worst Business of the Year award- clearly destroys the conclusion

e.Voters for the Worst Business of the Year award are not influenced by previous years’ results.
negation - it is not true that Voters for the Worst Business of the Year award are not influenced by previous years’ results.
means Voters for the Worst Business of the Year award are influenced by previous years’ results- we don ot have information about many previous years but just about 1 year based on which the conclusion about second year is made. E is wrong

Hope it helps!
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Two years ago Chapter Internet, the only internet provider in the country to offer high-speed internet access, handily won the Worst Business of the Year award, earning three times as many votes as the company that came in second. Last year Chapter made technological improvements which doubled the average speed of its customers’ internet service. However, the company did nothing to address its poor customer service, which explains why Chapter won the Worst Business of the Year award again last year.

Type-assumption
Conclusion- However, the company did nothing to address its poor customer service, which explains why Chapter won the Worst Business of the Year award again last year.
The company did nothing to address its poor customer service---> Chapter Internet won the Worst business of the year again last year

A) In the voting for last year’s Worst Business of the Year award, Chapter earned at least three times as many votes as did the second-most hated company.- incorrect- this even on negation has no effect on conclusion

B) The quality of a company’s customer service affects some of the voters for the Worst Business of the Year award.

C) Internet providers are not the only businesses in the running for the Worst Business of the Year award.- incorrect,

D) If Chapter did not hold a monopoly in the high-speed internet industry, market forces would compel it to provide better customer service.- incorrect,

E) Voters for the Worst Business of the Year award are not influenced by previous years’ results.

I was down to options B and E and later chose option E.
B on negation - The quality of a company’s customer service affects none of the voters for the Worst Business of the Year award.

E on negation - Voters for the Worst Business of the Year award are influenced by previous years’ results.

AjiteshArun , GMATNinja , MagooshExpert , GMATGuruNY , VeritasPrepBrian , MartyTargetTestPrep , DmitryFarber , VeritasKarishma , generis , other experts - please enlighten
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E is too strong to be a necessary assumption. If we negate it, all it says is that voters ARE INFLUENCED. It doesn't say how they end up voting or why they make that choice. Something can be a factor without overruling another explanation. For instance, if I buy three new fancy cars and go bankrupt, someone might (reasonably) conclude that buying the cars led to my bankruptcies. They aren't assuming that I had no other new financial burdens, just that no other factors were significant enough to have triggered my bankruptcy. To be necessary, E would need to say something along the lines of "Most voters don't just vote for the same business as last year, regardless of its current practices."
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E is too strong to be a necessary assumption. If we negate it, all it says is that voters ARE INFLUENCED. It doesn't say how they end up voting or why they make that choice. Something can be a factor without overruling another explanation. For instance, if I buy three new fancy cars and go bankrupt, someone might (reasonably) conclude that buying the cars led to my bankruptcies. They aren't assuming that I had no other new financial burdens, just that no other factors were significant enough to have triggered my bankruptcy. To be necessary, E would need to say something along the lines of "Most voters don't just vote for the same business as last year, regardless of its current practices."

Hi Dmitry,
In case of B, how do we assume that customer service for 'some' of the voters was impactful or the reason for winning the Worst business of the year award? Doesn't 'some' bring in ambiguity with it?
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Yes, "some" has a great deal of ambiguity to it. All it means is "more than zero"! However, that's not a problem at all. The point on an assumption question is to find something necessary to the argument, not something that proves the argument correct. How do we tell if something is necessary? See what happens when we take it away.

Try negating answer choice B. Since "some" means "more than zero," the negation of B is "The quality of a company’s customer service affects NONE of the voters for the Worst Business of the Year award." If quality of service has no effect on the voters for this award (no effect at all--direct or indirect), then it hardly seems possible that poor service is the reason for the award. That's what makes B necessary.
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OFFICIAL EXPLANATION


(1) Identify the Question
The word assumption in the question indicates the question type: Find the Assumption.

(2) Deconstruct the Argument
Chapter Internet, which has a monopoly on high-speed internet, won the Worst Business of the Year award two years ago. Last year, the company improved its technology but did not improve its customer service (CS). The author concludes that the latter fact is the reason Chapter won the award again last year.

Here is one possible way to map the argument.

CI improved speeds, didn’t improve CS

won award

© didn’t improve CS à won award

This is a standard argument of correlation and causation. From the fact that two things both happened (Chapter not improving its customer service; Chapter winning the award), the author concludes that one of those things (bad customer service) caused the other (winning the award).



(3) State the Goal
The goal in this question is to identify a necessary assumption in the argument: something that must be true in order for the conclusion to be true, given the evidence.



(4) Work From Wrong to Right

(A) This may be true, but the author doesn’t have to assume it. It doesn’t matter by what margin Chapter won the award; what matters is the reason Chapter won the award.

(B) CORRECT. The argument indicates that bad customer service was correlated with Chapter’s receipt of the award, but the author never provides any reason to believe that those two factors are causally related. If none of the voters actually cared about customer service, then the author’s conclusion that bad customer service caused Chapter to win the award is completely groundless. Thus, the author must assume that customer service matters to the award voters.

(C) Other businesses or industries are irrelevant. Even if internet providers were the only companies in the running for the Worst Business of the Year, the author could still be correct in claiming that Chapter won because of its poor customer service.

(D) What would happen if certain conditions came to pass has no bearing on the reason Chapter actually won the award last year. This choice attempts to explain one of the premises of the argument (that Chapter has poor customer service). On assumption questions, the answer should further explain the conclusion, not the premises.

(E) Even if award voters were influenced by previous years’ results, customer service could still be to blame for Chapter winning the Worst Business award, so the argument does not depend on this statement.
For example, some voters might not have voted for Chapter because they were bored of seeing the same company win year after year, yet Chapter won anyway, maybe because other voters thought Chapter had bad customer service. This would be compatible with the argument. Or, if half of the voters were influenced one way and half the other, then this information would have no effect on the argument whatsoever. A choice that requires its own assumptions in order to be relevant to the argument is never correct on the GMAT.
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Dear Payal,

Thanks for your reply, but ifor E

if last year's results are because of the technological glitches, then the root cause would not be customer service.

I still think E is the correct answer

Where it is clearly stating

A-> B is incorrect because it is C--> B not A...
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RAHUL_GMAT
Dear Payal,

Thanks for your reply, but ifor E

if last year's results are because of the technological glitches, then the root cause would not be customer service.

I still think E is the correct answer

Where it is clearly stating

A-> B is incorrect because it is C--> B not A...

You missed one subtle difference.
Check:
Quote:
However, the company did nothing to address its poor customer service, which explains why Chapter won the Worst Business of the Year award again last year

Conclusion of worst business year award is based on: "company did nothing to address its poor customer service" not on "just because voters vote against". Voters vote against because of poor quality service, not because they have benefits of voting against.
IF E correct, it means you are referring that even company has improved its service, still voters vote against it. -this is not given in passage.
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Hi ReedArnoldMPREP - this is a non-official question so i am a bit skeptical

how would you eliminate (E) ?

(e) if negated becomes

Quote:
E) Voters for the Worst Business of the Year award are not influenced by previous years’ results.


"if voters voted for "Chapter Internet" to be the worst business LAST YEAR just because "Chapter Internet" was the worst business TWO YEAR AGO

-- that indicates--

lack of customer service was not the driver for why "Chapter Internet" got the worst business award LAST YEAR.
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^^ ReedArnoldMPREP
On the other hand – I don’t think (B) has to be necessarily true.

Why do the voters have to be personally affected by the lack of customer service?

Perhaps the voters are folks who don’t even have internet providers themselves.

The voters chose Chapter Internet to be the worst business of the year last year because
- the voters interviewed customers of Chapter Internet
- the voters conducted surveys of customers of Chapter Internet
- the voters reviewed yelp reviews of customers of Chapter Internet

Why should the voters of Chapter Internet themselves be customers/clients of Chapter Internet?
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^^ ReedArnoldMPREP
On the other hand – I don’t think (B) has to be necessarily true.

Why do the voters have to be personally affected by the lack of customer service?

Perhaps the voters are folks who don’t even have internet providers themselves.

The voters chose Chapter Internet to be the worst business of the year last year because
- the voters interviewed customers of Chapter Internet
- the voters conducted surveys of customers of Chapter Internet
- the voters reviewed yelp reviews of customers of Chapter Internet

Why should the voters of Chapter Internet themselves be customers/clients of Chapter Internet?

For E, I think I'd echo Dmitry's argument from above. "are not influenced by" is too weak to be a NECESSARY assumption, and to negate the answer and say they ARE INFLUENCED BY isn't strong to really RUIN the argument.

If E said "Many Voters for the Worst Business of the Year award do not simply vote for last years' winner," or "Voters for the Worst Business of the Year award are very likely to vote for last years' winner regardless of the bussiness's performance this year," I'd agree that this is a necessary assumption. But E doesn't say that. It says *influenced by*, which is a pretty tepid metric.

Now regarding B, this:

Quote:
Why do the voters have to be personally affected by the lack of customer service?

Perhaps the voters are folks who don’t even have internet providers themselves.

The voters chose Chapter Internet to be the worst business of the year last year because
- the voters interviewed customers of Chapter Internet
- the voters conducted surveys of customers of Chapter Internet
- the voters reviewed yelp reviews of customers of Chapter Internet

is fundamentally the question at hand. The conclusion is: "[the fact that the company did nothing to address its poor customer service] explains why Chapter won the Worst Business of the Year award again last year."

You're asking the exact right questions. Why did it have to be customer service?

Well... the author is assuming it was in order to draw the conclusion! This is what B states.
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