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AshutoshB
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Letter to the editor: Your newspaper's advertisement claims that you 22 Aug 2018, 05:33
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C
Be sure to select an answer first to save it in the Error Log before revealing the correct answer (OA)!

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45% (medium)

Question Stats:

63% (01:37) correct 37% (01:56) wrong based on 639 sessions

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Letter to the editor: Your newspaper's advertisement claims that you provide coverage of the high school's most popular sports. Clearly, this is false advertising. Of the school's students, 15 percent compete on the track team, while only 5 percent of the students play basketball. Hence, the track is far more popular than basketball, yet track gets no coverage and basketball gets full-page coverage.

The reasoning in the letter to the editor is most vulnerable to the criticism that it

A. infers a cause from a mere correlation
B. bases its conclusion on a sample that is too small
C. misinterprets a keyword in the newspaper's advertisement
D. employs as a premise the contention it purports to show
E. criticizes the source of a claim rather than the claim itself
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C
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pratik521992
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Letter to the editor: Your newspaper's advertisement claims that you 22 Aug 2018, 05:52
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Keyword is " Most popular sports".
So author of the letter misinterprets that the news covers The Most Popular sport.

Hence C
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sumit411
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Letter to the editor: Your newspaper's advertisement claims that you 22 Aug 2018, 06:29
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AshutoshB
Letter to the editor: Your newspaper's advertisement claims that you provide coverage of the high school's most popular sports. Clearly, this is false advertising. Of the school's students, 15 percent compete on the track team, while only 5 percent of the students play basketball. Hence, the track is far more popular than basketball, yet track gets no coverage and basketball gets full-page coverage.

The reasoning in the letter to the editor is most vulnerable to the criticism that it

A. infers a cause from a mere correlation

B. bases its conclusion on a sample that is too small

C. misinterprets a keyword in the newspaper's advertisement

D. employs as a premise the contention it purports to show

E. criticizes the source of a claim rather than the claim itself


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Clear C
Most popular does not mean the one that has maximum participation.

Regards,
Sumit

Sent from my ONEPLUS A3003 using GMAT Club Forum mobile app
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analytica233
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Letter to the editor: Your newspaper's advertisement claims that you 24 Mar 2020, 17:10
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AshutoshB
Letter to the editor: Your newspaper's advertisement claims that you provide coverage of the high school's most popular sports. Clearly, this is false advertising. Of the school's students, 15 percent compete on the track team, while only 5 percent of the students play basketball. Hence, the track is far more popular than basketball, yet track gets no coverage and basketball gets full-page coverage.

The reasoning in the letter to the editor is most vulnerable to the criticism that it

A. infers a cause from a mere correlation

B. bases its conclusion on a sample that is too small

C. misinterprets a keyword in the newspaper's advertisement

D. employs as a premise the contention it purports to show

E. criticizes the source of a claim rather than the claim itself


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"coverage of the high school's most popular sports" means "coverage of most of the high school's popular sports" which does not necessarily include basket ball, the most popular sport of the high school. (C) is correct.
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ishaan452356
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Letter to the editor: Your newspaper's advertisement claims that you 13 Nov 2025, 10:21
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Can someone help me figure out why A is not the correct answer? I was confused between A and C, and it makes sense that the writer could have misinterpreted the word. However, what if he didn't misinterpret the word and thought that the correlation of participation causes popularity. This might be very stupid, but if anybody could help, I'd be really grateful. Thanks!
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Letter to the editor: Your newspaper's advertisement claims that you 13 Nov 2025, 12:29
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ishaan452356
Can someone help me figure out why A is not the correct answer? I was confused between A and C, and it makes sense that the writer could have misinterpreted the word. However, what if he didn't misinterpret the word and thought that the correlation of participation causes popularity. This might be very stupid, but if anybody could help, I'd be really grateful. Thanks!
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(A) is irrelevant. Even if the writer thinks participation = popularity, the flaw is still failing to consider that the advertiser might mean something else by ‘popular’, which is essentially misinterpreting the word in the ad’s context. So (A) is incorrect.
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Letter to the editor: Your newspaper's advertisement claims that you 26 Jan 2026, 20:12
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I understand why A may seem correct but had it been the editor infers cause from correlation it would have explicitly shown that the editor has done that. But in this case we dont see that. However we can see that the editor has misinterpreted the meaning of popularity

ishaan452356
Can someone help me figure out why A is not the correct answer? I was confused between A and C, and it makes sense that the writer could have misinterpreted the word. However, what if he didn't misinterpret the word and thought that the correlation of participation causes popularity. This might be very stupid, but if anybody could help, I'd be really grateful. Thanks!
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Letter to the editor: Your newspaper's advertisement claims that you 26 Jan 2026, 23:07
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AshutoshB
Letter to the editor: Your newspaper's advertisement claims that you provide coverage of the high school's most popular sports. Clearly, this is false advertising. Of the school's students, 15 percent compete on the track team, while only 5 percent of the students play basketball. Hence, the track is far more popular than basketball, yet track gets no coverage and basketball gets full-page coverage.

The reasoning in the letter to the editor is most vulnerable to the criticism that it

A. infers a cause from a mere correlation
B. bases its conclusion on a sample that is too small
C. misinterprets a keyword in the newspaper's advertisement
D. employs as a premise the contention it purports to show
E. criticizes the source of a claim rather than the claim itself
Show more
The letter argues that because 15% of students are on the track team and only 5% play basketball, track is more popular. It then criticizes the newspaper for not covering track despite claiming to cover the most popular sports. The flaw is that the letter defines "popular" strictly by participation rates, but the newspaper might mean popularity in terms of spectator interest, reader demand, or community attention.

A. Incorrect. The letter does not confuse correlation with causation; it compares participation percentages without inferring a causal relationship.

B. Incorrect. The percentages refer to the entire student body, not a small sample. Sample size is not the issue.

C. Correct. The letter assumes "popular" means highest participation rate. The newspaper's advertisement might use "popular" differently, e.g., referring to sports with the most viewers or reader interest. This misinterpretation is the core flaw.

D. Incorrect. The letter does not use its conclusion as a premise. It uses participation rates as evidence to conclude track is more popular, then criticizes the newspaper.

E. Incorrect. The letter challenges the newspaper's claim directly, not the source of the claim.

Answer: (C)
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