The Slide company put its focus on creating aesthetic and eye-catching

Question

The Slide company put its focus on creating aesthetic and eye-catching skateboards whereas the Glide company on producing highly functional skateboards. Before developing their latest models, both companies considered making changes to their strategies. More sales have been attributed to the latest model released by Glide than that released by Slide. In the skateboard industry, the more equally balanced the aesthetics and functionality of a skateboard are, the higher its sales.

If the statements above are correct, they most strongly support which of the following?

If the statements above are correct, they most strongly support which of the following?

(A) Skateboard buyers are more likely to choose products with higher functionality over those with better aesthetics.

(B) Creating a model that equally balances aesthetics and functionality helped Glide take the lead of the skateboard industry.

(C) The Slide company changed its strategy by only a small amount.

(D) Glide's latest product's aesthetic and functional levels were closer to each other than those of Slide's latest product.

(E) The Glide company increased its emphasis on aesthetics for its latest model.

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pappal · Answer

P1- general focus : Slide on aesthetics and Glide on high functionality
P2-for latest model both considered making changes to their strategies
P3- sales  : Glide > Slide
C- more balanced featured skateboards, positive correlation to sales
Q-stem - we need to find out the gist of the discussion?
options: A - not in rhythm with the discussion (X)
B- nowhere mentioned that glide took lead of the Industry (X)
C-discusses about the change in strategy of Slide but nothing about balancing of features. Say that Glide also changed the strategy by same amount but this change created the balance, but not by Slide. (X)
D-This clearly goes in rhythm with the argument under discussion (CORRECT)
E-Definitely this is what has happened but doesn't discusses anything about the balance of the features so (X) 
D IMO
D-

Vardaan6117 · Answer

(A) “Buyers are more likely to choose higher functionality over better aesthetics” — not necessarily supported; the principle given is about balance, not functionality preference.
(B) “Creating a model that equally balances aesthetics and functionality helped Glide take the lead of the skateboard industry” — extreme: we don’t know Glide took the “lead” of the whole industry, only that it sold more than Slide’s latest model.
(C) “Slide changed its strategy by only a small amount” — no information about the magnitude of change.
(D) “Glide’s latest product’s aesthetic and functional levels were closer to each other than those of Slide’s latest product” — Yes, this directly matches the inference from Step 2.
(E) “Glide increased its emphasis on aesthetics for its latest model” — plausible, but not necessarily true; maybe Slide increased functionality a lot but still had a bigger gap. But the given facts only require Glide’s model to be more balanced, not specifically that Glide increased aesthetics.

The most strongly supported is (D) — it restates the necessary condition for Glide’s higher sales given the balance–sales relationship.

Bunuel · Answer

OFFICIAL EXPLANATION

The Slide company put its focus on creating aesthetic and eye-catching skateboards whereas the Glide company on producing highly functional skateboards. Before developing their latest models, both companies considered making changes to their strategies. More sales have been attributed to the latest model released by Glide than that released by Slide. In the skateboard industry, the more equally balanced the aesthetics and functionality of a skateboard are, the higher its sales.

If the statements above are correct, they most strongly support which of the following?

If the statements above are correct, they most strongly support which of the following?

(A) Skateboard buyers are more likely to choose products with higher functionality over those with better aesthetics.

Incorrect.

This is an Inference question, so the argument is comprised of premises only, on which basis you are asked to draw a conclusion:

Premise A: In the past, Slide focused on aesthetics while Glide focused on functionality.
 +
Premise B: Before creating their latest products, both companies decided whether or not to change their strategies, and in what way. (We are not told if any changes were made).
 +
Premise C: More of the latest Glide skateboards were bought than Slide skateboards.
 +
Premise D: Skateboards with a closer balance of functionality and aesthetics are more successful than ones with a large difference in levels of functionality and aesthetics. 
 =
Conclusion: ?

This conclusion contradicts Premise D. Skateboard buyers do not prefer functionality over aesthetics. Instead, they are drawn to the equal balance of both aspects.

(B) Creating a model that equally balances aesthetics and functionality helped Glide take the lead of the skateboard industry.

Incorrect.

This conclusion goes too far beyond of the premises. Just because Glide's latest board has had greater sales than that of Slide's does not mean that Glide now leads the skateboard industry. Maybe all the boards before it didn't even come close in sales to those produced by Slide. There might be also be more companies in the industry.

In addition, you cannot assume that Glide's latest model equally balanced aesthetics and functionality; it may have had a closer balance then before, but that doesn't mean one aspect did not receive more emphasis over the other.

(C) The Slide company changed its strategy by only a small amount.

Incorrect.

This conclusion cannot be supported by the argument since no mention of the actual changes made by the companies. It is possible that Slide made a huge change towards functionality, for example.

(D) Glide's latest product's aesthetic and functional levels were closer to each other than those of Slide's latest product.

Premise D tells us that it is the balance of aesthetic and functional levels that boosts the sales of a skateboard. The closer the levels (no matter how high or how low), the higher the sales; so the Glide product's level must have been closer than those of the Slide's product.

(E) The Glide company increased its emphasis on aesthetics for its latest model.

Incorrect.

This conclusion cannot be supported by the argument since no mention of the actual changes made by the companies is made. It is possible that the Glide company lowered its level of functionality to meet that of its aesthetics and thereby formed a more equal balance between the two.

The Slide company put its focus on creating aesthetic and eye-catching

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The Slide company put its focus on creating aesthetic and eye-catching

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