With continuous advertising through email, infomercials,

Question

With continuous advertising through email, infomercials, and mainstream media outlets, the hairgrowth solution Retraligon has been touted as a cure for male pattern baldness. By stimulating the roots of barren hair follicles, the mixture of Aliphatic Fatty Acids in a proprietary formula is claimed to spark hair regrowth in over 90% of consumers. A skeptical potential consumer argues, "No man wishes to become bald. If Retraligon were truly a cure for male pattern baldness, then every balding man would be using it and the number of balding men in the world would drop noticeably. Clearly, it is ineffective."

Each of the following is an assumption required by the skeptical consumer's argument EXCEPT:

(A) Retraligon's marketing has been pervasive enough to reach nearly every balding man.

(B) Hair growth attributed to Retraligon is sustained even after use of the solution ends,

(C) There are not a significant number of people who exhibit allergic reactions to Aliphatic Fatty Acids.

(D) There is more than enough Retraligon available to meet demand.

(E) The cost of treatment with Retraligon is not prohibitively expensive.

ektakdawla · Answer

Skeptical conclusion is product is inefective 
assumption is most of the people have used it..
we can not assume hair growth even after sol ends means it is effective , going against the conclusion

Gaurav25993 · Answer

Gmat ninja / Karishma - can any one of please share the reasons for the answer. Thank you

GDT · Answer

Pls provide explanation for B & C

AndrewN · Answer

I see a few questions on this one, so I thought I would share my thoughts in hopes of assisting the community. With CR questions, I prefer to read the question stem first so that I know what to look for in the passage.

Okay, so this is a sort of reverse-assumption question. We need to find what is  not  a necessary assumption for the argument to hold. This should be a fun question, then, knowing we are going to presented with four  correct  assumptions for once.

I do not like to spend a lot of time on pre-thinking. Rather, I find it useful to know how the sentences work to advance the argument.

Sentence 1 - We are introduced to a hairgrowth product, Retraligon, and told that it has received  continuous advertising .

Sentence 2 - This is more or less the pitch. I feel as if I am watching a Retraligon infomercial. In all seriousness, we get a glimpse into how the product works, as well as its claimed efficacy rate.

Sentence 3 - Our  skeptical potential consumer  enters the picture, nay-saying. The rest of the lines are contained within the quote. So what can we attack?

Analysis: Presumably, for  every balding man  to be using Retraligon to treat his baldness, he would have had to have heard about the product. There is no mention of word-of-mouth advertising in the passage, leaving us to speculate that the  continuous advertising  of sentence 1 is the same as  marketing  in this answer choice. This is a reasonable assumption for the argument to hold, and for that reason, it  cannot  be the answer we seek.  Red light.

Analysis: The answer starts off well enough, with sustainable hair growth, since  a cure  would have to be more than temporary, but then  even after...  triggers a baseless conclusion. Nowhere does the passage state that Retraligon is a one-time-application cure-all. (In fact, I would imagine that if Retraligon had concocted such a product, the company would suppress it, dilute the solution, and market a product that worked only with continued use, but now I am speculating.) The duration of use is simply not mentioned in either the background information or the quotation, so we do  not  have to assume the truth of the entire statement for the argument to hold. Remember, any weak link breaks the chain.  Green light.

Analysis: Again, the argument is based on  every balding man  being able to use the product, so if there were  a significant number of people who exhibit allergic reactions  to one of the key ingredients in Retraligon (from sentence 2), then we can conclude that a significant number of people would  not  be using the product to treat their baldness, and the argument would fall apart. Thus, this  is  a necessary assumption and is not our answer.  Red light.

Analysis: Think about  every balding man  wanting to get his hands on a certain product. For this to happen, there would have to be enough of that product to go around, end of story.  Red light.

Analysis: This was one of the first assumptions my mind conjured up as a reasonable one to make, perhaps influenced by other assumption questions in which the goal was to find the one true assumption. If  every balding man  cannot afford the treatment, then guess what? Every balding man will not be able to use said treatment, and the argument once again falls through.  Red light.

In short,  make sure every word counts  in CR answer choices. If you can find even one or two small things to debate outright, then get rid of those answer choices. All the pieces have to fit logically, not just the ones you choose to focus on.

- Andrew

Sunsh · Answer

A. The skeptical customer has assumed that everyone is aware of Retraligon, Still not opting for it. For this to happen Ad of the same should reach everyone.
B. If this happen everyone would have had different result as per the customer's mindset. So this is opposing his argument. This is the answer.
C. If significant number of people has allergy of that substance, that can be the reason people are not opting for it. But this option eliminates that possibility also.
D. If demand was huge and supply was less, that can be also a reason that significant number of bald man not getting the service. But this option eliminates that possibility too.
E. If the cost is too high, that can be a reason for the bald men of the world be hesitant of taking the service. But this is not the case as per the option.

With continuous advertising through email, infomercials,

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