Singing in the Rain Umbrella Corp. plans to institute a marketing camp

Question

Singing in the Rain Umbrella Corp. plans to institute a marketing campaign in which it sells umbrellas at the exits of subway stations during rainy weather. The umbrellas will be sold at a price that is slightly higher than normal. The company thinks the sales of these higher - priced umbrellas will be greater than normal sales of umbrellas, because the purchasers of these umbrellas will be forced to buy them if they do not want to get wet.

The author assumes which of the following about the purchasers of the umbrellas in predicting the sales of the umbrellas?

A. Customers who do not feel immediate pressure to purchase will not do so.

B. Normally priced umbrellas are not profitable for singing in the Rain Umbrellas Corp.

C. Very few people buy Singing in the Rain’s normally priced umbrellas.

D. Singing in the Rain Umbrellas Corp. will have to stop selling normally priced umbrellas when it starts selling higher priced
umbrellas.

E. Most potential customers of Singing in the Rain’s higher priced umbrellas will not have acquired an umbrella previously.

Confused between A and E

ramannanda9 · Accepted Answer

It should be A ,When down to two options always try the negation technique. Although the conclusion is worded in a way to cause some confusion b/w normal sales and normal umbrellas.

Conclusion: The company thinks the sales of these higher - priced umbrellas will be greater than  normal
sales of umbrellas   Note:Not normal umbrella.

Premise: the purchasers of these umbrellas will be forced to buy them if they do not want to get wet

Singing in the Rain Umbrella Corp. plans to institute a marketing campaign in
which it sells umbrellas at the exits of subway stations during rainy weather. The
umbrellas will be sold at a price that is slightly higher than normal.  The company
thinks the sales of these higher - priced umbrellas will be greater than normal
sales of umbrellas, because the purchasers of these umbrellas will be forced to
buy them if they do not want to get wet.

The author assumes which of the following about the purchasers of the umbrellas
in predicting the sales of the umbrellas?

A. Customers who do not feel immediate pressure to purchase will
not do so.  (Negate) But the ones that do feel the need will do so won't they. So the sales of the umbrella will rise 
 B. Normally priced umbrellas are not profitable for singing in the
Rain Umbrellas Corp. Totally irrelevant. 
C. Very few people buy Singing in the Rain’s normally priced
umbrellas.  Not relevant 
D. Singing in the Rain Umbrellas Corp. will have to stop selling
normally priced umbrellas when it starts selling higher priced
umbrellas.  No way this can be an assumption. 
E. Most potential customers of Singing in the Rain’s higher priced
umbrellas will not have acquired an umbrella previously.
 Hmm, a close choice but if you negate it this becomes.  Some potential customers will have acquired an umbrella previously.  . Does this destroy my argument ? Not definitely. Also if you look at it from other perspective, Even if i have the umbrella, i might not be carrying it with me, So my purchase really is not affected by the fact that i have an umbrella or not.

abhimahna · Answer

Negate A as Customers who do feel immediate pressure to purchase will not do so.( Or Even after the pressure they are not going to buy the umbrella.) ,Hence conclusion is weakened. E is wrong because even if they have bought the umbrellas, they might not be carrying it or we don;t know how previous it is. may be 10 years or 20 years. :-D

Hence, A is the correct answer.

avohden · Answer

When i paraphrased Answer A it made more sense to me since it had a double negative in that  "who do not feel"  and  "will not do so" . Paraphrased in the affirmative, the answer would read like this" If a customer fells pressured they will buy." I don't think this is negating the answer choice, but merely rephrasing it in the affirmative since it has a double negative. 
 
A. Customers    who do not feel    immediate pressure to purchase    will not do so  .

Since the last sentence of the question stem talks about forcing customers to buy an umbrella  (will be forced to
buy them if they do not want to get wet.)  , i think the Answer A hits it home with the assumption.

Nick90 · Answer

Singing in the Rain Umbrella Corp.   plans  to institute a marketing campaign in
which it sells umbrellas at the exits of subway stations during rainy weather . The
umbrellas will be sold at a price that is slightly higher than normal.  The company
thinks the sales of these higher - priced umbrellas will be greater than normal
sales of umbrellas , because  the purchasers of these umbrellas will be forced to
buy  them if they do not want to get wet.

The author assumes which of the following about the purchasers of the umbrellas
in predicting the sales of the umbrellas?

A. Customers who do not feel immediate pressure to purchase will
not do so .------------ Pre-thinking , Also, If you closely read this option then you can understand why company thnks It's sales will increase . This option states the company assumption that company sales are low currently and if compant can pressure people to buy umbrella then it's sales can increase .
Low are are because customers do not feel immidiate pressure to buy umbrella on normal day but on rainy day people will feel immidiate presure to buy 1 if they don't want to get wet.....( and who the hell is soo cheap to not buy an umbrella and to get wet while going home, work or to chill out .
B. Normally priced umbrellas are not profitable for singing in the
Rain Umbrellas Corp. ---------even if normal priced umbrellas are profitable , this option has no impact on conclusion that the sales from higher priced ones will be higher.
C. Very few people buy Singing in the Rain’s normally priced
umbrellas.-------- okay!!! but what about the increased sales from higher prices. no impact on conclusion .
D. Singing in the Rain Umbrellas Corp. will have to stop selling
normally priced umbrellas when it starts selling higher priced
umbrellas.-------- Bad stratergy, Also OOS for conclusion to be valid.
E. Most potential customers of Singing in the Rain’s higher priced
umbrellas will not have acquired an umbrella previously.(Close option..... but negation tells nothing about the difference of sales between higher prices and normal prices)

abrakadabra21 · Answer

Singing in the Rain Umbrella Corp. plans to institute a marketing campaign in
which it sells umbrellas at the exits of subway stations during rainy weather. The
umbrellas will be sold at a price that is slightly higher than normal.  The company
thinks the sales of these higher - priced umbrellas will be greater than normal
sales of umbrellas,  because the purchasers of these umbrellas will be forced to
buy them  if they do not want to get wet.

IT assumes that 
1> Passengers of subway stations are not carrying the umbrella already
2> There is no other alternative such as raincoat that they prefer.

The author assumes which of the following about the purchasers of the umbrellas
in predicting the sales of the umbrellas?

A. Customers who do not feel immediate pressure to purchase will
not do so.

Negate :- Customers who do not feel immediate pressure to purchase will
do so.
 Ok, then good, sales will rise. How come it is breaking the conclusion. 
 
E. Most potential customers of Singing in the Rain’s higher priced
umbrellas will not have acquired an umbrella  previously . :- Previously refers to their current situation???? They might have acquired umbrella previously but are they carrying it right now.??

lash213 · Answer

Shouldn't the negation of A read as " Customers who feel immediate pressure to purchase will
not do so." That would weaken the conclusion, thus making it the correct assumption.

sayantanc2k · Answer

No,this is not the negation - the verb needs to be negated, not the subject modifier. The negation of "I play football" is "I don't play football", not "Others (whoever is not me) play football."

The negative of A thus becomes:
Customers who do not feel immediate pressure to purchase will do so.

I do not see why this would break down the argument because the argument is about people who feel the emergency - this option is out of scope.

In my view E is much better than A - negating E:
Most potential customers of Singing in the Rain’s higher priced umbrellas will have acquired an umbrella previously.

This implies that most potential customers no longer require to buy a new umbrella and hence the plan of the company would fail. E should be the answer.

gmatexam439 · Answer

I find most of the people writting WRONG negation of the option A.

People are negating by saying that "Customers who  do not  feel immediate pressure to purchase will  not  do so." which is wrong.

Correct negation will be negating the MAIN VERB of the option. So the appropriate negation should be:
"Customers who do not feel immediate pressure to purchase will  not  do so."

This statement supports the conclusion instead of weakening it.  OPTION "A" CAN NEVER BE CORRECT .
 I am open to a debate on this.

Answer should be "E".

kris19 · Answer

Singing in the Rain Umbrella Corp. plans to institute a marketing campaign in which it sells umbrellas at the exits of subway stations during rainy weather. The umbrellas will be sold at a price that is slightly higher than normal. The company thinks the sales of these higher - priced umbrellas will be greater than normal sales of umbrellas, because the purchasers of these umbrellas will be forced to buy them if they do not want to get wet.

The conclusion of the argument is that the 'sales of higher priced umbrellas' are greater than the 'sales of normal priced umbrellas'. This means normal priced umbrellas are sold somewhere else, while higher priced umbrellas are sold at subway exits. At the subway exits, customers are forced to buy umbrellas because of rain. At other places (when no immediate pressure to buy umbrellas) where this Corp. sells umbrellas at normal prices, customers are not buying as many umbrellas as they buy at subway exits.

The author assumes which of the following about the purchasers of the umbrellas in predicting the sales of the umbrellas?

A. Customers who do not feel immediate pressure to purchase will not do so.
For the conclusion - sales of higher priced umbrellas are greater than the sales of normal priced umbrellas - to be valid, sales of normal priced umbrellas that are sold at non-subway exits (i.e, shopping malls, etc., where customers are not forced to buy umbrellas) should be less than the sales of umbrellas at subway exits. This choice says that customers at these places (i.e, shopping malls, etc) are not buying umbrellas as there is no immediate pressure on them. So this is the correct choice

B. Normally priced umbrellas are not profitable for singing in the Rain Umbrellas Corp.
No discussion on the profits, so out of scope answer choice

C. Very few people buy Singing in the Rain’s normally priced umbrellas.
The argument is all about the sales, not about how many people buy, so out of scope answer choice
D. Singing in the Rain Umbrellas Corp. will have to stop selling normally priced umbrellas when it starts selling higher priced
umbrellas.
If this happens, then the original argument (in the conclusion part) can't say that the sales of higher priced umbrellas are greater than the sales of normal priced umbrellas. If the Corp. stops selling normal priced umbrellas, then the sales will be zero always. So even if one higher priced umbrella is sold, then sales of it is greater than the normal priced umbrellas. Not correct

E. Most potential customers of Singing in the Rain’s higher priced umbrellas will not have acquired an umbrella previously.
This answer choice is not telling why normal priced umbrellas are sold less than high priced umbrellas are. Not correct

PRNDL · Answer

I don't understand how A is correct. 
It says " A. Customers who do not feel immediate pressure to purchase will not do so. "
This talks about people who do not feel pressure. Shouldn't the conclusion be concerned with people who feel pressure. Something that says " Customers who are under immediate pressure make purchases. "
If we take A to be true, what information does it give us about the people who take pressure. I would say that there is an inherent assumption that "people who feel pressure" act opposite to people who "do not feel pressure".

sayan640 · Answer

Bunuel  , Request you to check this question and provide the correct OA with explanation.

Posted from my mobile device

Bunuel · Answer

Princeton Review Official Explanation:

Assume is an obvious key word. Work the argument:

C: Sales of umbrellas at subway exits while it’s raining will be greater than normal sales. 
P: People will be forced to buy umbrellas if they don’t want to get wet. 
A: They don’t have umbrellas with them. They are unwilling to get wet.

POE:

In (B), profitability of normally priced umbrellas is irrelevant.

In (C), sales of normally priced umbrellas are irrelevant.

(D) doesn’t deal with the issue.

(E) looks good, but it’s not right. Potential customers might have umbrellas, but the issue is whether they have an umbrella with them.

(A) makes the link.  If it’s raining and you don’t have an umbrella, you feel the pressure to make a purchase. On some assumption questions, you may have a lot of difficulty spotting the necessary assumption due to the way the answers are worded. This is particularly true with answer choices containing negative words such as not and never. One way to check whether an answer choice is a necessary assumption is to negate, or reverse, that answer. If the negation would weaken the argument, that answer is a necessary assumption.

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Singing in the Rain Umbrella Corp. plans to institute a marketing camp

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