The recent discovery that many large fish contain mercury, which can

Question

The recent discovery that many large fish contain mercury, which can cause neurological damage in humans, has apparently had little effect on shoppers. Few shoppers plan to change their fish-buying habits after hearing about the discovery. Nonetheless, sales of large fish in grocery stores fell sharply in November, a week after the report came out.

Which of the following, if true, best explains the reason for the apparent discrepancy described above?

A. In November, many grocery store fishmongers stopped buying and selling large fish because they feared being held liable for their customers' potential illnesses.

B. Because of an increase in warnings about the safety of the food supply, shoppers in November took the warning regarding large fish less seriously.

C. The discovery was publicized in various media, including radio, television, and many blogs.

D. The researchers who made the discovery did not study small fish, though it is likely that small fish also contain trace amounts of mercury.

E. Public health officials do not believe that large fish are dangerous when consumed in small quantities, which would limit the amount of mercury consumed.

abhimahna · Answer

An easy one.

Answer is A.

1. In November, many grocery store fishmongers stopped buying and selling large fish because they feared being held liable for their customers' potential illnesses.  --> Clearly indicates the reason behind the decrease in sales. 
 2. Because of an increase in warnings about the safety of the food supply, shoppers in November took the warning regarding large fish less seriously.  --> Doesn't explain why there was a decrease in sales when they took the warning less seriously. 
 3. The discovery was publicized in various media, including radio, television, and many blogs.  --> So, How does that matter. Irrelevant. 
 4. The researchers who made the discovery did not study small fish, though it is likely that small fish also contain trace amounts of mercury.  ---> Argument is about large fish mercury discovery and its no change in sales. Small fish is not considered. Out of Scope. 
 5. Public health officials do not believe that large fish are dangerous when consumed in small quantities, which would limit the amount of mercury consumed.  --> We are not bothered about what PHO believe. Irrelevant.

goforgmat · Answer

You have sales when the the item you are selling is present in the stores. There is a decrease in sales when the item is present and not selling anymore as it used to.
If the grocery store doesn't buy the fish how could that have resulted in decreased sales?

Experts any thoughts on this?

abhimahna · Answer

Sales of large fish in grocery stores has decreased doesn't imply that the Grocery stores have those fishes but they are unable to sell.

Remember, we cannot make our own assumptions while solving such type of questions.

Its like earlier , people used to buy 10Kg of these fishes but since the availability of fishes is less now, people are buying only 2 Kg. Thus, the sales of fishes has decreased from 10kg to 2kg.

abrakadabra21 · Answer

Prethinking for this question goes like this :
 
 1> few shoppers who plan to change their buying habits are the ones who are largely responsible for the sales so lets say 50% of sales is because of 1 huge hotel who plan wedding and stuff, if it backs out (obviously hotels are more conscious what they are feeding to their customers because they are brand), then definitely sales will go down.

2> sales of large fish in grocery stores fell sharply in November => now we are only concerned about grocery stores. Let say they used to keep 100 kg in their inventory. Although they know people will still buy, but they don't want any legal or health issues to their customers, they stopped keeping large fish at all. In that case anyways sale is 0 and it has declined right.  
 
May be few shoppers didn't change their habits and started buying from fish market. but in any case grocery stores sales has declined. right?

MBAPrepCoach · Answer

@adityapareshshah the key to this question is identifying the scope shift.

What terms are in the conclusion that are not in the evidence and vice versa?

In this situation they shift the scope from shopper behavior to overall sales.

Before even looking at the answers I knew it how to tell me who stopped buying fish, and it wasn't the shoppers.

For that reason I would look at the first answer be satisfied and move on.

Farrell Dyan Hehn, MBA
Admissions Consultant & Verbal Strategist MBAPrepCoach.com

VerbalBot · Answer

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The recent discovery that many large fish contain mercury, which can

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