Although domestic airfares have risen over each of last 14 quarters, a

Question

CR EVALUATION SERIES: Question 3) Domestic Airfares Have Risen

Although domestic airfares have risen over each of last 14 quarters, a recent pullback in the wholesale price of jet fuel has opened up at least a 15% decrease in airline expenses for all of the domestic airline carriers. Accordingly, passengers can expect to see the price of domestic airfares fall soon.

Which of the following would be most useful to establish in evaluating the argument?

Ⓐ Whether the airfares between popular destinations increased as much as airfares to other destinations over the last 14 quarters

Ⓑ Whether the number of airline carriers will remain the same in the coming quarters

Ⓓ Whether domestic airline carriers will advertise and promote a drop in airfares

Ⓔ Whether the collective negotiating power of the airline industry contributed to the reduction in jet fuel prices

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◀ CR EVALUATION SERIES: Question 2) The Ten Most Popular Primetime TV Programs

▶ CR INFERENCE SERIES: Question 1) Securities Industry Regulator

schak2rhyme · Answer

Although domestic airfares have risen over each of last 14 quarters, a recent pullback in the wholesale price of jet fuel has opened up at least a 15% decrease in airline expenses for all of the domestic airline carriers. Accordingly, passengers can expect to see the price of domestic airfares fall soon.

Which of the following would be most useful to establish in evaluating the argument?

Ⓐ Whether the airfares between popular destinations increased as much as airfares to other destinations over the last 14 quarters

Ⓑ Whether the number of airline carriers will remain the same in the coming quarters

Ⓓ Whether domestic airline carriers will advertise and promote a drop in airfares

Ⓔ Whether the collective negotiating power of the airline industry contributed to the reduction in jet fuel prices

Conclusion-Price of domestic airfares will fall soon
Pre think step-The airliners will pass on the reduction of airline expenses to passengers

A-We are not concerned whether the airfares of popular destinations increased as compared to other destinations hence out of scope
B-In the argument nothing has been stated in order to come to a conclusion that the number of airline carriers will remain same or not
C-Similar to our pre think step.If the answer to the question is yes then the reduction in airline expenses will reflect in prices of airfares.If the answer is no the conclusion is invalidated and the argument breaks down.Hence,correct choice
D-Advertising the drop in airfares is not relevant since it is not clear whether the reduction in expenses will surely lead to drop in prices
E-Collective Negotiating power of the airline industry has no effect on the reduction in prices of airfares in the future.Hence out of scope

ENGRTOMBA2018 · Answer

Although domestic airfares have risen over each of last 14 quarters ,  a recent pullback in the wholesale price of jet fuel has opened up at least a 15% decrease in airline expenses for all of the domestic airline carriers.   Accordingly, passengers can expect to see the price of domestic airfares fall soo n.

Text in red: Counter premise
Text in blue: Premises
Text in Green: Conclusion

The argument concludes that the passengers can expect to see a drop in airfares as the prices of jet fuel have fallen by atleast 15%.
The argument is open to criticism that it does not provide any information of the relative values of the variables in the relation  Profits = Revenues - Cost . We are provided that the revenues have been increased and that the costs (assuming that jet fuels are the ONLY operating costs!, another hidden assumption) have decreased. We are not told that they airlines are going to reduce the airfares to be consistent with the reduction in the jet fuel. If the companies plan to maintain or even increase their profits, airfares might not be reduced. Option C correctly presents this prethinking and is thus the correct answer.

Additionally, the correct answer choice should either weaken or strengthen the argument when taken to possible extremes.

Which of the following would be most useful to establish in evaluating the argument?

Ⓐ Whether the airfares between popular destinations increased as much as airfares to other destinations over the last 14 quarters
 Incorrect. Irrelevant. Relative airfare details are irrelevant. The argument states that the airfares are expected to decrease. So checking this option at extremes does not weaken the conclusion.

Ⓑ Whether the number of airline carriers will remain the same in the coming quarters
 Incorrect. Irrelevant. Number of airline carriers is out of scope.

Ⓒ Whether the prices that domestic carriers plan to charge will reflect the reduction in expenses
 Correct. As per the prethinking above.

Ⓓ Whether domestic airline carriers will advertise and promote a drop in airfares
 Incorrect. Advertising is irrelevant. The argument talks about decrease in the prices. Advertising has got nothing to do with this.

Ⓔ Whether the collective negotiating power of the airline industry contributed to the reduction in jet fuel prices
 Incorrect. No one cares about the reason or reasons for reduction in jet fuel prices.

EMPOWERgmatVerbal · Answer

CR EVALUATION SERIES: Question 3) Domestic Airfares Have Risen

Although domestic airfares have risen over each of last 14 quarters, a recent pullback in the wholesale price of jet fuel has opened up at least a 15% decrease in airline expenses for all of the domestic airline carriers. Accordingly, passengers can expect to see the price of domestic airfares fall soon.

Which of the following would be most useful to establish in evaluating the argument?

Ⓐ Whether the airfares between popular destinations increased as much as airfares to other destinations over the last 14 quarters

Ⓑ Whether the number of airline carriers will remain the same in the coming quarters

Ⓓ Whether domestic airline carriers will advertise and promote a drop in airfares

Ⓔ Whether the collective negotiating power of the airline industry contributed to the reduction in jet fuel prices

Official Explanation

Question Type  : Evaluate
  Boil It Down   (Simplified & Abbreviated Summary of the Prompt): Cost of jet fuel down -> Airfares down
  Missing Information (assumption)  : The savings will be factored in to airfares
  Goal  :  Find the option that helps us evaluate whether airfares will fall. 
  Analysis  : This argument automatically presumes that because the cost of jet fuel has decreased, that airfares will follow suit. That could be the case, but we need an option that helps us confirm.

Ⓐ This question doesn’t help us evaluate whether airfares will go down because the price of jet fuel went down. Whether the airfares between popular destinations increased as much as airfares to other destinations over the last 14 quarters (or not) is irrelevant to our investigation.

Ⓑ The number of airlines can increase, decrease, or stay the same, and that wouldn’t have any clear impact on whether airfares will or will not go down.

Ⓑ The number of airlines can increase, decrease, or stay the same, and that wouldn’t have any clear impact on whether airfares will or will not go down.

Ⓒ Yes! This is EXACTLY what we need to investigate. Whether the prices that domestic carriers plan to charge will reflect the reduction in expenses. If yes, then the prediction looks pretty good (I say pretty good because there could still be other increases in costs that could offset the fuel savings). On the other hand, if airfares don’t reflect the savings from jet fuel, then the prediction looks very unlikely. Depending on how this option is answered, it could either make or break the prediction.

Ⓓ Whether domestic airline carriers will advertise and promote a drop in airfares is not relevant to an investigation as to whether the airfares will go down. Whether the carriers advertise that drop in prices doesn’t matter as to whether the fare ACTUALLY drop.

Ⓔ Whether the collective negotiating power of the airline industry contributed to the reduction in jet fuel prices is entirely irrelevant because we don’t care at all how or why jet fuel prices went down. What we need to investigate is whether the savings from the cost of jet fuel will be factored in to airfares.

◀ CR EVALUATION SERIES: Question 2) The Ten Most Popular Primetime TV Programs

▶ CR INFERENCE SERIES: Question 1) Securities Industry Regulator

EMPOWERgmatVerbal · Answer

Hi schak2rhyme,

Nice job. There's one part of your breakdown I'd like to touch on: Your response here appears to treat the objective more like an Inference question. Our goal isn't to find an option we can render a conclusion about though, but rather we need to determine whether this option would help us evaluate the prediction that airfares will soon fall. The reason why this option is incorrect is not because we can't conclude whether there will be a change in the number of airlines, but rather if there were an increase or a decrease in the number of airlines that wouldn't help us reinforce or debunk the likelihood that airfares will soon fall.

EMPOWERgmatVerbal · Answer

Hi Engr2012,

I'm sure you know this already, but I just wanted to reiterate: your breakdowns are fantastic! One thing that stands out to me is how you color code the prompt. That's a great way to get in the habit of attacking and breaking down the prompts. That skill will help for all CR questions, and RC passages, and is directly linked to the correct options in Bolded Statement questions, and Purpose questions in RC.

ENGRTOMBA2018 · Answer

Hi Max

Thank you for your comments. You nailed it with your last line about the Bolded Statement Questions. I picked up this habit because of my bad accuracy with Bold face questions. Once I started to apply this strategy to most of the questions (time being one major constraint!), I saw that both my understanding of the prompt and accuracy for CR questions increased.

hehehehahaha · Answer

Although domestic airfares have risen over each of last 14 quarters, a recent pullback in the wholesale price of jet fuel has opened up at least a 15% decrease in airline expenses for all of the domestic airline carriers. Accordingly, passengers can expect to see the price of domestic airfares fall soon.

Which of the following would be most useful to establish in evaluating the argument?

Ⓐ Whether the airfares between popular destinations increased as much as airfares to other destinations over the last 14 quarters

Ⓑ Whether the number of airline carriers will remain the same in the coming quarters

Ⓓ Whether domestic airline carriers will advertise and promote a drop in airfares

Ⓔ Whether the collective negotiating power of the airline industry contributed to the reduction in jet fuel prices

Step 1: look at question (most useful to establish in evaluating the argument) -> asking for best assumption to support writer's conclusion.

Step 2: find evidence and conclusion.

Conclusion:Accordingly, passengers can expect to see the price of domestic airfares fall soon.

Evidence:a recent pullback in the wholesale price of jet fuel has opened up at least a 15% decrease in airline expenses for all of the domestic airline carriers.

Step 3: find assumption to leads evidence to conclusion. 
Writer assumed that decrease in expense will lead to fall in domestics prices.

Step 4: scan all answers
C gives the answer closest to assumption.

Senthil7 · Answer

The assumption in the argument in that the decrease in expense (fuel charge) will lead to decrease in airfare. The only choice that acts as a catalyst for evaluating this argument in that sense is :

A_Nishith · Answer

Conclusion-Price of domestic airfares will fall soon
Pre think step-The airliners will pass on the reduction of airline expenses to passengers

A-We are not concerned whether the airfares of popular destinations increased as compared to other destinations hence out of scope
B-In the argument nothing has been stated in order to come to a conclusion that the number of airline carriers will remain same or not
C-Similar to our pre think step.If the answer to the question is yes then the reduction in airline expenses will reflect in prices of airfares.If the answer is no the conclusion is invalidated and the argument breaks down.Hence,correct choice
D-Advertising the drop in airfares is not relevant since it is not clear whether the reduction in expenses will surely lead to drop in prices
E-Collective Negotiating power of the airline industry has no effect on the reduction in prices of airfares in the future.Hence out of scope

Answer: C

Although domestic airfares have risen over each of last 14 quarters, a

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GMAT Critical Reasoning (CR) Questions

Although domestic airfares have risen over each of last 14 quarters, a

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