An artist who sells her paintings for a fixed price decides that she

Question

An artist who sells her paintings for a fixed price decides that she must increase her income. Because she does not believe that customers will pay more for her paintings, she decides to cut costs by using cheaper paints and canvases. She expects that, by cutting costs, she will increase her profit margin per painting and thus increase her annual net income.

Which of the following, if true, most weakens the argument above?

Which of the following, if true, most weakens the argument above?

(A) Other area artists charge more for their paintings than the artist charges for hers.

(B) The artist has failed to consider other options, such as renting cheaper studio space.

(C) The artist’s plan will result in the production of inferior paintings which, in turn, will cause a reduction in sales.

(D) If the economy were to enter a period of inflation, the artist’s projected increase in income could be wiped out by increases in the price of art supplies.

(E) The artist considered trying to complete paintings more quickly and thus increase production, but concluded that it would be impossible.

This is a  CR Butler Question

Check the links to other Butler Projects:
 
  Data Sufficiency Butler  
  Problem Solving Butler  
  Sentence Correction Butler  
  Reading Comprehension Butler  
  Integrated Reasoning Butler

MansikaVats · Answer

I think its answer is option C . Can anybody also check it and tell whether my answer is correct or not .
Thanks .

RonPurewal · Answer

There are two parts to the conclusion: /1/ the artist will make more profit per painting, and, therefore, /2/ her total income will go up as well.
Our reasoning here should focus primarily on part 2 of this conclusion, since that's the final, main conclusion of the whole passage—but, technically, the correct answer could be something that weakens part 1, part 2, or both.

Weakening part 1 means pointing to a reason why the artist's  profit per painting might be the same as, or even less than, before .

Weakening part 2 means pointing to a reason why the artist WON'T make more money overall, even if she sells each painting at a greater unit profit. A higher unit profit could only coincide with lower total revenue if the artist sells fewer total units—so a weakener of part 2 would be any reason  why the artist will sell fewer paintings  after making the changes described here.

.

Looking at the choices in terms of the criteria above:

(A) Irrelevant. We don't care about any other artists; the passage focuses exclusively on this one artist.

(B) The argument is limited to what will happen if the artist makes the specified changes. Things she DIDN'T do are irrelevant.

(C) This choice supplies a solid reason why the artist will sell fewer paintings after making the changes—so this is a weakener of part 2 above and thus the  CORRECT ANSWER .

(D) There's no reason to think that a protracted period of inflation is likely to happen, so there's no reason to take that scenario into account.

(E) Same issue as B: We don't care about alternatives that the artist decided NOT to pursue, regardless of her reasons for forgoing them.

arushi118 · Answer

In the question it says "which of the following  if true " -> So can't D also be a possible correct answer?

RonPurewal · Answer

If an "if... then..." statement is true, that means nothing about the likelihood that the "If..." part will actually happen.

e.g., I can tell you "If I were a billionaire, I would retire early and give lots of money away." This is a true statement—I would definitely do both of those things if I woke up with $1 billion someday—but, even though that's a true statement, the actual chance that I'll ever be a billionaire is zero.

Same thing here. All they're telling you is that "If x then y" is true; I think you're mistaking that for being told that "x" itself is true (and then  combining  that with the if/then statement to mistakenly conclude that "y" is true).

Bunuel · Answer

OFFICIAL EXPLANATION

An artist who sells her paintings for a fixed price decides that she must increase her income. Because she does not believe that customers will pay more for her paintings, she decides to cut costs by using cheaper paints and canvases. She expects that, by cutting costs, she will increase her profit margin per painting and thus increase her annual net income.

Which of the following, if true, most weakens the argument above?

Which of the following, if true, most weakens the argument above?

(A) Other area artists charge more for their paintings than the artist charges for hers.

(B) The artist has failed to consider other options, such as renting cheaper studio space.

(C) The artist’s plan will result in the production of inferior paintings which, in turn, will cause a reduction in sales.

(D) If the economy were to enter a period of inflation, the artist’s projected increase in income could be wiped out by increases in the price of art supplies.

(E) The artist considered trying to complete paintings more quickly and thus increase production, but concluded that it would be impossible.

C

To weaken an argument, look first at its conclusion. This argument concludes that the artist will increase her profit margin ... and thus increase her annual income by using cheaper art supplies. Which answer choice undercuts this conclusion? Choice C does; if the artist’s sales decrease, then her increased profit margin may not lead to an increase in annual income, because the decrease in sales may offset the increase in per-painting profit. The best answer is C.

An artist who sells her paintings for a fixed price decides that she

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

An artist who sells her paintings for a fixed price decides that she

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