Advertisement: Every time you use your X card to charge any purchase

Question

Advertisement: Every time you use your X card to charge any purchase, you accumulate credit with Worldwide Airlines in proportion to the cost of the purchase. This credit can then be used to reduce the cost of your Worldwide Airlines tickets. So with this new program you can now afford purchases you couldn’t afford before: the extra money you can save on travel is money you can spend on these purchases!

The advertisement’s argument depends on assuming which one of the following?

(A) Some of the destinations to which you would be likely to travel are serviced by airlines that compete with Worldwide Airlines.
(B) The balance on purchases you charge with an X card is subject to an interest rate that is below average.
(C) The purchases you normally make are invariably from businesses that accept the X card.
(D) You can accumulate an amount of credit with Worldwide Airlines that is at least as great as the value of any of the potential purchases you could not afford before.
(E) You are likely to travel to at least one of the destinations serviced by Worldwide Airlines.

ankit18sharma · Answer

Why not D? It attacks the conclusion by stating that the cost saved is equivalent to the stuff one could not buy earlier.

Mavisdu1017 · Answer

Hi bro, I went with D too at first time, but after I read it again, I found a problem with D. 
The passage says the credit will be used as a deduction of the cost of your ticket. Eg: the original ticket price was 1000 and you can’t afford it, but you got some credits (such as 250), then the new price of the ticket will become 750 and now you can afford it.
But D says accumulate an amount of credit = the value of any of the potential tickets. This means you must accumulate 1000 credits, but the fact is that you will afford the ticket but don’t necessarily accumulate till 1000 credits. So I guess that’s why D is wrong.
Welcome to discuss.

8Harshitsharma · Answer

Option D is a strengthener - because it is not a MUST BE TRUE statement.
MC - "with this new program you can now afford purchases you couldn’t afford before"

Prethought assumption: The amount saved from ticket in Worldwide Airlines should reduce the cost of the product I couldn't afford before enough such that I can now afford it.
Meaning: Amount saved by using X card and WW Airlines = $a, cost of things I could NOT afford before = $b
So according to the passage, the cost of things I could afford before MUST BE = $b - $a. This means that I do not need the full $b from the airline credit, if I can accumulate $b - $a then the conclusion holds true.

Choice D says that it CAN BE true that $a = $b -> which is not a MUST BE TRUE because even if $b - $a ≠ 0, whether +ve or -ve, the conclusion still holds. INCORRECT CHOICE

Choice E is an assumption because its negation i.e. I am not likely to travel to at least one of the destinations serviced by WW Airlines - which means that I will NOT USE the saved credit from the purchases using card X. So all the credits will go to waste and I am still broke and can't afford ****.

Hope this helps some people who wanted mathematical analysis of the question

rm3122 · Answer

So here is my logic on why E is the better answer-

Premise 1- Earn points when using X credit card in proportion to spends

Premise 2- credit can then be used to reduce the cost of your Worldwide Airlines tickets. only and only this, and nothing else.

Conclusion- this new program you can now afford purchases you couldn’t afford before.

What is the assumption?

A- Some of the destinations to which you would be likely to travel are serviced by airlines that compete with Worldwide Airlines.
Incorrect- we are not interested in any other airline except worldwide airline

B- The balance on purchases you charge with an X card is subject to an interest rate that is below average.
Incorrect- interest is out of scope on this topic, as we are looking for an assumption to tie WWA and X credit usage

C- The purchases you normally make are invariably from businesses that accept the X card.
Incorrect- Again it is out of scope since we want to link WWA and credits from X, although it is a logically sound assumption for anyone who uses credit cards.

D- You can accumulate an amount of credit with Worldwide Airlines that is at least as great as the value of any of the potential purchases you could not afford before.
Incorrect- Although again true that one might accumulate the amount of credit points worth any potential purchases, eg let’s say a Ferrari worth of points one can accumulate, but then you can only redeem these points on WWA flights which does not help you achieve your goal of owning a Ferrari.

E-You are likely to travel to at least one of the destinations serviced by Worldwide Airlines.
Correct- Logically sound and points can be used to reduce cost of WWA flight tickets, which effectively leads to our conclusion of money saved

temporapossimus · Answer

E guys without there is no travel no travel means all the credit he got is wasted if he travels only money on ticket is saved and he can buy things,by negation we can answer the question

Jujustrollss · Answer

I actually thought of another reason as to why D might be incorrect. The value of the credit accumulated need not be equivalent to the VALUE of the items you could not afford earlier, it just needs to be equivalent to the amount over your budget for the card to be worth it!

Example- I want to buy a bag worth 2300$ but my budget is 2000$
The points accumulated and once saved on the ticket need not be equivalent to 2300$ (the VALIUE of the bag), but 300$ worth of points is enough to make the bag purchase "under budget"

Hence, E is more correct

sudoo · Answer

Absolutely agreed, that's how I also eliminated the option. !

Advertisement: Every time you use your X card to charge any purchase

Prep Toolkit

Top 5 GMAT Debrief Videos

615 to 715 in 15 Days (Ria's Strategies)

More than Quant/Verbal Abilities: Speed vs. Accuracy

745 with Only Self-Prep and GMAT Club

From 555 to 765: 210-point Improvement

Perfect 805 Score Debrief by Julia

My Rewards

GMAT Critical Reasoning (CR) Questions

Advertisement: Every time you use your X card to charge any purchase

Prep Toolkit

615 to 715 in 15 Days (Ria's Strategies)

More than Quant/Verbal Abilities: Speed vs. Accuracy

745 with Only Self-Prep and GMAT Club

From 555 to 765: 210-point Improvement

Perfect 805 Score Debrief by Julia

My Rewards