Italian food is considered a delicacy in most parts of the world. Yet

Question

Italian food is considered a delicacy in most parts of the world. Yet, Italy has more American food outlets selling bagels and apple pies than any other country in Europe. Obviously, Italians are very fond of American food.

Which of the following, if true, would most weaken the author’s contention?

A. There are also a larger number of Indian restaurants in Italy than there are in other countries in Europe.

B. American food sold in Italian outlets is less expensive than other cuisines available there.

C. There are an unusually large number of American tourists in Italy who eat at restaurants where bagels and apple pies are sold.

D. American food actually has high nutritional value when consumed in limited quantities.

E. The number of Italian tourists eating in American restaurants that sell bagel and apple pies is very low.

Source:Crackverbal

Doer01 · Answer

Hi Experts,
 Option C & E both are good contenders. The reason for rejecting C was that it only states about American tourists but it is still possible that Italians go too where as option E states about Italian TOURISTS which made it more attractive. What did I miss?
Thanks.

GYANENDRA88 · Answer

Conclusion: Italians r fond of American food.
Option C states that American tourists eat at American restaurants in Italy.....what about Italians?
I can not digest this.
It should mention that only American tourists eat there or something which will indicate that Italians are not eating in American restaurant

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BrightOutlookJenn · Answer

When you read the paragraph, notice the logical leap from the evidence:

to the conclusion

The evidence is about the  number  of American food stores in Italy selling certain food. But the conclusion is about the  kind of food that Italians like . 
We need to notice that those are two different things. Notice that the conclusion did not say "the kind of food that  people in Italy  like" ... it got overly specific and said "Italians." There are more people in Italy than just Italians.

This is our clue for the hole in this argument - or said another way, the assumption that we can attack. If we can find any information to break the author's assumption that  customers of American food stores in Italy = Italians , we'll have our answer. It could be something about Americans who live in Italy, or nationals of other countries who visit Italy and consume American food there ...

Remember, you are looking to WEAKEN the conclusion - to introduce a major doubt into the author's reasoning. The correct answer choice does not necessarily have to DESTROY the conclusion, but rather to give us a big reason that the conclusion might not be correct.

Does this help?

Best, Jennifer

pkshankar · Answer

The issue with option E is that it just talks about Italian tourists, as per my understanding this means Italians who travel from one part of the country to the other. So they are tourists because they are on a vacation to some other part of the country. The issue here is that the number of Italian tourists eating at American restaurant is low but what about Italian non tourists, there could be a possibility that they indeed like those delicacies and this would end up strengthening the argument hence E is incorrect.
On the contrary option C directly attacks the author's assumption.The author assumes that since the restaurants are in Italy only Italians can visit those restaurants and since that number is high the author concludes that Italians are fond of American food.The author misses the point that American restaurants could actually be catering to non Italians. Hence C is the correct answer.

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CapitalWorks · Answer

Italian food is considered a delicacy in most parts of the world. Yet, Italy has more American food outlets selling bagels and apple pies than any other country in Europe. Obviously, Italians are very fond of American food.

Which of the following, if true, would most weaken the author’s contention?

A. There are also a larger number of Indian restaurants in Italy than there are in other countries in Europe.
 Even if this is true, it could mean that Italians are fond of both Indian food and American food.

B. American food sold in Italian outlets is less expensive than other cuisines available there.
 Possible, let's consider it

C. There are an unusually large number of American tourists in Italy who eat at restaurants where bagels and apple pies are sold.
 Possible, let's consider it

D. American food actually has high nutritional value when consumed in limited quantities.
 Irrelevant. This does not affect how much Italians enjoy American food.

E. The number of Italian tourists eating in American restaurants that sell bagel and apple pies is very low.
 Incorrect. Even if the number of Italian tourists eating American food is low, that doesn't say anything about how many Italians eat American food.

So we have narrowed the answer down to B and C.

B-- The argument assumes that Italians eat American food because they enjoy it. B provides an alternative reason for why Italians may eat American food, namely that Italians prefer the low cost of American food. This does weaken the conclusion, but Italians may nonetheless enjoy the inexpensive American food.

C-- If there are an unusually large number of American tourists in Italy in American food, it's quite possible that Americans, not Italians, enjoy American food. This weakens the conclusion more than B does, hence the answer is C.

Answer: C

@jennpt  Can you please look over my analysis-- specifically, is there a better way to eliminate option B?

SonalSinha803 · Answer

Option C gives you an alternative reason as to why there are so many American restaurants. Why do you need something like "only" making the assumption too stronge. I guess C is sufficient as a contender and right answer to this question.

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BrightOutlookJenn · Answer

CapitalWorks

To be honest, B is a little ambiguously worded and thus reveals one of the issues in working with non-OG questions: it's not entirely clear to me exactly what this statement means. I'm not entirely sure whether "Italian outlets" means all places you can buy food (of any type) in Italy, or whether it's referring back to the American food outlets in Italy referenced in the question, or perhaps normal Italian (ie, non-American) food stores in Italy. I also don't know where "there" is - in Italy? In the stores?

Frankly I am spending more time trying to parse the meaning of that sentence than the writer probably spent writing the question. We can accuse OG questions of lots of things, but ambiguity should not be one of them.

I interpreted "Italian outlets" in B to describe non-American places - so specifically  excluding  the American food outlets in Italy referenced in the question. With that interpretation, B is irrelevant.

We want our correct answer to show that the evidence given does not match the conclusion => a classic  scope shift . Our correct answer should break the assumed link between the number of American food outlets in Italy and the level of love Italians have for American food.

Let me know if this helps.

VerbalBot · Answer

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Italian food is considered a delicacy in most parts of the world. Yet

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Italian food is considered a delicacy in most parts of the world. Yet

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