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03 Mar 2020, 05:28
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Be sure to select an answer first to save it in the Error Log before revealing the correct answer (OA)!
Difficulty:
25%
(medium)
Question Stats:
76% (01:34) correct
24%
(02:05)
wrong
based on 172
sessions
History
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Not Attempted Yet
The government recently released a study of drinking water, in which it was reported that consumers who bought bottled water were in many cases getting water that was less safe than what they could obtain much more cheaply from the public water supply. In spite of the enormous publicity that the study received, sales of bottled water have continued to rise.
Which one of the following, if true, is most help in resolving the apparent paradox?
(A) Bottled water might contain levels of potentially harmful contaminants that are not allowed in drinking water.
(B) Most consumers who habitually drink the bottled water discussed in the study cannot differentiate between the taste of their usual brand of bottled water and that of water from public sources.
(C) Increased consumption of the five best-selling brands of bottled water, which the report said were safer than both public water and most other brands of bottled water, accounted for the increase in sales.
(D) The rate of increase in the sales of bottled water has slowed since the publication of the government study.
(E) Government health warnings concerning food have become so frequent that consumers have begun to doubt the safety of many everyday foods.
Which one of the following, if true, is most help in resolving the apparent paradox?
(A) Bottled water might contain levels of potentially harmful contaminants that are not allowed in drinking water.
(B) Most consumers who habitually drink the bottled water discussed in the study cannot differentiate between the taste of their usual brand of bottled water and that of water from public sources.
(C) Increased consumption of the five best-selling brands of bottled water, which the report said were safer than both public water and most other brands of bottled water, accounted for the increase in sales.
(D) The rate of increase in the sales of bottled water has slowed since the publication of the government study.
(E) Government health warnings concerning food have become so frequent that consumers have begun to doubt the safety of many everyday foods.
09 Mar 2020, 05:06
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The government recently released a study of drinking water, in which it was reported that consumers who bought bottled water were in many cases getting water that was less safe than what they could obtain much more cheaply from the public water supply. In spite of the enormous publicity that the study received, sales of bottled water have continued to rise.
Which one of the following, if true, is most help in resolving the apparent paradox?
Question basically asks us to find out why the bottled water sales kept increasing despite the fact that govt. study found that bottled water was less safe than more cheaply available public supply water. So something that strengthens the argument should be the answer.
(A) Bottled water might contain levels of potentially harmful contaminants that are not allowed in drinking water. - WRONG. Knowing that harmful contaminants are present bottled water should rather decrease the sales but that's not the case here. So this option makes things more complex.
(B) Most consumers who habitually drink the bottled water discussed in the study cannot differentiate between the taste of their usual brand of bottled water and that of water from public sources. - WRONG. This option is irrelevant to the argument's context.
(C) Increased consumption of the five best-selling brands of bottled water, which the report said were safer than both public water and most other brands of bottled water, accounted for the increase in sales. - CORRECT. Even if sales of most of the bottled water brands is decreasing the top five are increased so much that overall bottled water sales has increased. This option resolves the issue at hand.
(D) The rate of increase in the sales of bottled water has slowed since the publication of the government study. - WRONG. If this is true sales should have decreased but it's not. This option makes things complex similarly as did option A.
(E) Government health warnings concerning food have become so frequent that consumers have begun to doubt the safety of many everyday foods. - WRONG. This is deception, if not less, by using similar words as in the argument. No concerned of food OR not concerned of what happens in general.
IMO Answer C.
Which one of the following, if true, is most help in resolving the apparent paradox?
Question basically asks us to find out why the bottled water sales kept increasing despite the fact that govt. study found that bottled water was less safe than more cheaply available public supply water. So something that strengthens the argument should be the answer.
(A) Bottled water might contain levels of potentially harmful contaminants that are not allowed in drinking water. - WRONG. Knowing that harmful contaminants are present bottled water should rather decrease the sales but that's not the case here. So this option makes things more complex.
(B) Most consumers who habitually drink the bottled water discussed in the study cannot differentiate between the taste of their usual brand of bottled water and that of water from public sources. - WRONG. This option is irrelevant to the argument's context.
(C) Increased consumption of the five best-selling brands of bottled water, which the report said were safer than both public water and most other brands of bottled water, accounted for the increase in sales. - CORRECT. Even if sales of most of the bottled water brands is decreasing the top five are increased so much that overall bottled water sales has increased. This option resolves the issue at hand.
(D) The rate of increase in the sales of bottled water has slowed since the publication of the government study. - WRONG. If this is true sales should have decreased but it's not. This option makes things complex similarly as did option A.
(E) Government health warnings concerning food have become so frequent that consumers have begun to doubt the safety of many everyday foods. - WRONG. This is deception, if not less, by using similar words as in the argument. No concerned of food OR not concerned of what happens in general.
IMO Answer C.
09 Mar 2020, 12:17
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After reading the question stem, one may ask two questions. First, whether the public water of all regions are equally safer than the bottled water . In this case, only sale of bottled water in those regions can increase and may be they contribute the major share of the sales figure. Another thing is that does the study generalized all bottle waters are unsafe or specifically mentioned the name of some safe brands which are safer than all other sources of water. The second thing is said exactly in option C, for which I think it is the answer.
