A bakery in neighbohood X sells cakes that are very

GMATNinja Please explain answer choices A and B

A bakery in neighbohood X sells cakes that are very intricately created using a rare method that a bakery in nearby town Y used in previous years. Because of its complexity, the baking method is unlikely to have developed independently in both bakeries. One food critic theorized that the bakers at neighborhood X's bakery must have learned the method from the bakers ar town Y's bakery.

Critic theory :- One food critic theorized that the bakers at neighborhood X's bakery must have learned the method from the bakers at town Y's bakery.

Premise :- they are complex so that they can't occur independently.
But why X learnt it from Y. X can learn it from somebody from the same town who has learnt it many years before from Y bakery.



The answer to which of the following questions would be most useful in evaluating the critic's theory?

A. Do bakers ever leave their own bakeries in order to socialize with other bakers?
If any bakers don't leave his bakery then there is no way that they can learn from each other.

B. Are baked goods ever bought from bakery to bakery?
yes:- baked goods bought from bakery to bakery. then it can mean neighborhood X sells cakes that are bought from Y. Weaken the critics theory.
No:- baked goods are not bought from bakery to bakery. Doesn't strengthen the critics theory. How would it ensure that - the bakers at neighborhood X's bakery must have learned the method from the bakers at town Y's bakery.


A is better than B.

would be great if I get to know the exact answer and logics

IMO Option B is correct.
A. Do bakers ever leave their own bakeries in order to socialize with other bakers?
Here, Socializing doesn't mean they teach their baking methods to other bakers. Even if they do socialize, there is a chance that baking methods are not shared with others. If they don't socialize, we can't say anything regarding the baking methods.

Whereas with option B,if the answer is yes, then it would weaken the conclusion.

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I had to look this up because I was so sure there was a typo in answer choice B, which is tripping people up.

Rather than, "B. Are baked goods ever BOUGHT from bakery to bakery?" it should be: "B. Are baked goods ever BROUGHT from bakery to bakery?".

The former doesn't make sense—what does it mean for something to be bought from bakery to bakery? Once you realize it's BROUGHT, the answer is so much clearer. Bringing baked goods from one shop to another means the bakers had a chance to see/study/etc the baked goods to create a replica.

Source (excuse the giant link): https://books.google.com/books?id=qRh_B ... y.&f=false

nice question!
missed the subtle difference between A and B . I hope actual GMAT doesn't throw such question

Can we say that the goods and cake mans same in this case ?

Since the critic theory talks about learning the method from bakers at town Y, why can't we consider C as the answer

My choice was E. I was also thinking between B and E. Later, I thought, the bakery could also have learned the technique without buying from y (for example, their representative go to y and independently buy y's cake).

How can B be the right answer? We are talking about cake. What if baked goods other than cake is being bought? What if the buying of baked goods is limited to the bakeries within same neighborhood? In either scenario choice B becomes irrelevant for evaluation.
On the other hand, there should be some socialization between cooks to learn baking which makes A a better choice.

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Bunuel MartyTargetTestPrep daagh sayantanc2k GMATNinja

Resolve for A and B

The differences between the choices are rather vague. So, in order to choose (A) over (B) or (B) over (A), you have to make up an unsupported story.

Making up stories that are not supported is not an effective method for correctly answering CR questions. Any logical connections used to support choosing a choice should be clearly supported by either information provided by the passage or by the answer choice or common sense.

Since none of the choices in this question are clearly logically connected to the passage by such information, this question is not representative of how GMAT CR questions work.

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Just because the baker did not leave his or her bakery, doesn't mean that there is no other way. Maybe the recipe was spread across through word of mouth ! Or Maybe the bakers had another mode of communication!

I guess this question is a poorly worded adaptation of the official GMAT question: https://gmatclub.com/forum/metal-rings- ... 20799.html

Why choice B is better than choice A

If the answer to Choice B is Yes, then there is a good possibility that the cakes were bought from the other bakery in the town Y and not made in the town X's bakery.

If the answer to choice B is No, then we cannot be sure of the theory proposed.

But, the other choices when answered yes or no, in both cases lead to speculation.

So, the best answer is B

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Even if they arent sold bakery to bakery the owner/ baker can still go there and buy the cake if they want to taste it. (B irrelevant)

Plus even if they sell Bakery to Bakery, thru saying that the cake has an intricate baking method, the stimulus conveys that such cakes recepie could not have been deducted from taste.

Such secret and complicated recepie could only be shared through gossiping or chatting amongst the bakers,