Advertisement: Avian Oculars are the newest in binocular technology fo

Question

Advertisement: Avian Oculars are the newest in binocular technology for the professional bird watcher. For a price comparable to that of traditional binoculars, Avian Oculars are specially designed with the features demanded by birding enthusiasts: they are lightweight, compact and extremely durable. So, use Avian Oculars on your next bird watching excursion, and see some of the world’s rarest species in all of their beautiful plumage.

Which of the following is an assumption on which the author of the advertisement relies?

A. Avian Oculars weigh less than traditional binoculars.
B. Avian Oculars should be used only by bird watchers.
C. The reader will travel through the habitats of rare species during his or her next bird watching trip.
D. Avian Oculars are similar in cost to traditional binoculars.
E. Birding enthusiasts often determine the specifications of new products.

Bunuel · Accepted Answer

OFFICIAL EXPLANATION

The advertisement discusses the merits of Avian Oculars, explaining that they are reasonably priced and contain several popular features. The advertisement concludes, however, by encouraging readers to use Avian Oculars in order to see some of the world’s rarest bird species. A proper assumption must reasonably connect these diverse ideas.

(A) The argument states that Avian Oculars are lightweight, but makes no direct comparison to traditional binoculars.

(B) Although the advertisement is geared toward bird watchers, nothing indicates that Avian Oculars should be used only by bird watchers. Even if Avian Oculars were used by individuals other than bird watchers, no information in the advertisement would be undermined.

(C) CORRECT.  The conclusion of the advertisement is that, by using Avian Oculars, the reader will see some of the world’s rarest bird species on his or her next bird watching trip. In order for this to be true, the reader would have to have access to these rare bird species. Even the best bird watching technology would prove useless to view a particular species of bird if the species were not present.

(D) This choice is true, but it is not an assumption. Remember, an assumption is an unstated piece of information that ties a conclusion to its premises. This particular answer choice is simply a stated premise from the second sentence of the argument.

(E) This argument presents one specific product, Avian Oculars, which is specifically designed with birding enthusiasts in mind. From this information, we cannot assume that birding enthusiasts themselves determined the specifications of Avian Oculars, nor can we make any assumptions about who determines the specifications of other products.

IanStewart · Answer

It might be more difficult, in this question, to identify the 'conclusion' since the text is that of an advertisement, and not of an argument. But we do have a sentence beginning with the word 'So...', and what follows is the conclusion: if you take the binoculars "on your next bird watching excursion", you will "see some of the world’s rarest species". Well clearly that's not necessarily going to be true: it's only true if the birdwatcher goes to a location containing rare species, so C is a necessary assumption.

KaranB1 · Answer

It is necessary to travel through the habitat of the birds to watch them?
Can we not see them in a place where birds flock far from their habitat?

What is the source of this question can anyone tell me?

kanakdaga · Answer

An assumption is something that is not stated in the argument but has to be true for the conclusion to hold. 
Usual strategy is to negate the answer choices and see if the argument still holds true. If it does not, that answer choice is the correct answer.

Advertisement: Avian Oculars are the newest in binocular technology for the professional bird watcher. For a price comparable to that of traditional binoculars, Avian Oculars are specially designed with the features demanded by birding enthusiasts: they are lightweight, compact and extremely durable. So, use Avian Oculars on your next bird watching excursion, and see some of the world’s rarest species in all of their beautiful plumage.

CONCLUSION : use Avian Oculars on your next bird watching excursion, and see some of the world’s rarest species in all of their beautiful plumage.

Which of the following is an assumption on which the author of the advertisement relies?
A. Avian Oculars weigh less than traditional binoculars. 
B. Avian Oculars should be used only by bird watchers.
C. The reader will travel through the habitats of rare species during his or her next bird watching trip.
 NEGATE THIS CHOICE: The reader will NOT travel through the habitats of rare species during his or her next bird watching trip. 
 if the reader will not travel through those habitats, there is no use of the new binoculars and its extra features. Thus the conclusion fails. 
CORRECT CHOICE.  
D. Avian Oculars are similar in cost to traditional binoculars.
E. Birding enthusiasts often determine the specifications of new products.

PLEASE KUDOS IF THIS HELPS. :D

LoneSurvivor · Answer

Author did not conclude that the visitors will definitely use the new binoculars. Author is just recommending to use that. We can not conclude C henceforth. According to me E should be the answer MagooshExpert please help me with understanding .

MagooshExpert · Answer

Hi LoneSurvivor ! Happy to help

The last sentence here is essentially a conditional statement. It implies: IF you use Avian Oculars on your next bird watching excursion, THEN you will see some of the world’s rarest species in all of their beautiful plumage. This statement would be invalidated if you are not traveling through the habitats of rare species during your next bird watching trip, because then even if you were using Avian Oculars, you would not see rare birds. I hope that helps!

-Carolyn

aniket16c · Answer

Dear experts,
 IanStewart   VeritasKarishma   daagh   nightblade354   DmitryFarber   GMATNinjaTwo

This is an advertisement argument. The main purpose of advertisement it to promote a particular product.
In this argument, doesn't the author assume that the features mentioned are the features desired by bird watchers?
Won't the consumers be attracted by the features than by the last line - see rare birds?

IMO, the last line is just to reinforce the idea that the binoculars really are a class apart. However, the conclusion is they are a class apart because of the features mentioned.

Can you please shed some light on this matter?

nightblade354 · Answer

P: For a price comparable to that of traditional binoculars, Avian Oculars are specially designed with the features demanded by birding enthusiasts: they are lightweight, compact and extremely durable. 
C: So, use Avian Oculars on your next bird watching excursion, and see some of the world’s rarest species in all of their beautiful plumage.

This is a massive bridge to gap. But the only thing way to make this happen is to say that the next trip you are going to see those birds. If you negate (C), the argument falls apart. In English, buy X, see Y. Well, if you are nowhere near Y, you will not see them. Thus you fail the argument.

Let's negate (E): Birding enthusiasts often  (DO NOT)  determine the specifications of new products. -- Well, who cares? We have to assume that only bird watching enthusiasts know what bird watching enthusiasts want, which is never stated and is an assumption unto itself that we cannot make. We are simply told that they are made for certain people, so who made them is inconsequential in this case.

KarishmaB · Answer

Avian Oculars, in a comparable price, are lightweight, compact and extremely durable (features demanded by birding enthusiasts)
Conclusion: So, use Avian Oculars on your next bird watching excursion, and see some of the world’s rarest species in all of their beautiful plumage.

Assumption of the argument:

A. Avian Oculars weigh less than traditional binoculars.

The argument does not assume that they weigh less. It just says that they are lightweight.

B. Avian Oculars should be used only by bird watchers.

No such assumption. The argument says that they can be used by birding enthusiasts. Whether someone else also uses them, we don't know.

C. The reader will travel through the habitats of rare species during his or her next bird watching trip.

The advertisement promises the sight of the world's rarest species in all of their beautiful plumage with the use of Avian Oculars. The assumption is that the user will go to habitats of rare species during his or her next trip. Correct.

D. Avian Oculars are similar in cost to traditional binoculars.

It is given in the argument. "Comparable price"

E. Birding enthusiasts often determine the specifications of new products.

The argument does not assume that. It says that Avian Ocular are designed with the features that are demanded by birding enthusiasts. But do birding enthusiasts OFTEN determine specs of new products? We don't know and nor do we care. Our conclusion does not depend on it.

Answer (C)

KarishmaB · Answer

I agree that it is an advertisement and the mention of 'rare birds' wouldn't normally be taken seriously. But we have been given the advertisement as our argument and we need to look at it from those eyes only. Besides, there is no other option that is even close.

aarushi00 · Answer

Advertisement: Avian Oculars are the newest in binocular technology for the professional bird watcher. For a price comparable to that of traditional binoculars, Avian Oculars are specially designed with the features demanded by birding enthusiasts: they are lightweight, compact and extremely durable. 
 Conclusion: So, use Avian Oculars on your next bird watching excursion, and see some of the world’s rarest species in all of their beautiful plumage.

A. AO weigh less than TB.
Out of scope. Premise just carries a mention that AO are lightweight. We cannot assume the comparison with TB on that basis.

B. Used by ONLY bird watchers cannot be assumed on the basis of the given argument

C.  Correct.   It is mentioned in the conclusion to see some of the World’s rarest species during next bird watching excursion and to do so traveling to such place would make it happen. Work of binoculars starts from the place were these birds are.

Negation: The reader will not travel through the habitats of rare species during his or her next bird watching trip. 
Negation of this option destroys the conclusion since it depends on the readers excursions to make use of the AO and see some of the world’s rarest species.

D. Cost doesn’t affect the conclusion and it is already stated in the premise so its doing nothing to the argument.

E. We do not know. This is of no concern to us.

Answer. C)

jabhatta2 · Answer

Hi  IanStewart  - when you read the premises of the argument 
  Avian Oculars are the newest in binocular technology for the professional bird watcher. 
 Avian Oculars are lightweight, compact and extremely durable

How to "bridge" the gap between these 2 premises listed in the 2 bullet points and what is mentioned in the conclusion specifically ?

I don't see how the premises in the 2 bullet points "re-inforce" the conditional statement in the conclusion in any way what so ever

Conclusion :

IF you use Avian Oculars on your next bird watching excursion, THEN you will see some of the world’s rarest species in all of their beautiful plumage.

IanStewart · Answer

Yes, I agree with you -- it's not much of an argument! "These binoculars are small and light, therefore if you use them, you will see rare birds" really doesn't make any sense, logically speaking. So if the author thinks this is a valid argument, the author is making some huge assumptions here. That's not typical on the GMAT; in most real GMAT CR assumption questions, the assumptions only fill in small gaps in an argument, and sometimes are hard to see. Here, to make the argument valid, we'd need to make the enormous and profoundly bizarre assumption that "any time people use small and light binoculars, they will see rare birds". So it's an unusual question.

I'd add that the premises do very slightly reinforce the conclusion here: the premises say more or less "these binoculars are good", and the conclusion is "by using these binoculars you'll get a certain good result." There's sort of a vague connection between the premises and conclusion in that sense.

jabhatta2 · Answer

Hi  IanStewart  - do GMAT og / verbal review / GMAT prep questions test conditional logic ? i dont recall any questions but could be wrong..

i know the LSAT does but i dont want to waste a lot of time unnecessarily doing conditonal logic if its not even tessted on OG / Gmat prep

thoughts ?

IanStewart · Answer

If you're asking about abstract propositional logic (where a question will say "If A is true, B is true..." rather than describe a concrete real world situation), that's sometimes tested on the LSAT, but not on the GMAT. But there are a lot of GMAT CR questions you could rephrase as propositional logic questions, because propositional logic is just logic, and that's what CR is too.

I don't see any advantage to studying propositional logic for the GMAT though, as long as you know what a contrapositive is, and regardless, there's not much to know about it anyway for either LSAT or GMAT level questions, so even if someone did study it, it wouldn't take them very long.

VerbalBot · Answer

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