Two years ago Chapter Internet, the only internet provider in the coun

Question

Two years ago Chapter Internet, the only internet provider in the country to offer high-speed internet access, handily won the Worst Business of the Year award, earning three times as many votes as the company that came in second. Last year Chapter made technological improvements which doubled the average speed of its customers’ internet service. However, the company did nothing to address its poor customer service, which explains why Chapter won the Worst Business of the Year award again last year.

Which of the following is an assumption on which the argument depends?

A) In the voting for last year’s Worst Business of the Year award, Chapter earned at least three times as many votes as did the second-most hated company.

B) The quality of a company’s customer service affects some of the voters for the Worst Business of the Year award.

C) Internet providers are not the only businesses in the running for the Worst Business of the Year award.

D) If Chapter did not hold a monopoly in the high-speed internet industry, market forces would compel it to provide better customer service.

E) Voters for the Worst Business of the Year award are not influenced by previous years’ results.

egmat · Accepted Answer

The correct answer is option B.

Let us first analyze the passage: 
- 2 years ago CI (Chapter Internet) won worst business award
- It received 3x votes as the next worst business/company
- Last year, CI improved its internet speed by 2x by making tech improvements
- CI did nothing to address its customer service, given to be Poor
-  Conclusion:  CI winning worst business of the year again last year, is because of the poor customer service

Pre-Thinking: 
In what scenario is the poor customer service not the reason for CI winning worst business of the year last year?

Given that:
- CI has poor customer service, which has not been improved
- CI has improved on internet speed from 2 years ago, through tech improvements
- CI won 3x the number of votes for worst business award two years ago (last to last year)

Falsification Conditions  (in what conditions will the conclusion not hold true)
1. What if there is some other factor apart from internet speed and customer service that actually led to this result? For example - negative brand image due to unethical practices 
2. What if there is no real connect between customer service and people voting for worst business. The author seems to be assuming that a significant number of customers who received this poor customer service will go on and vote against CI in this poll.

Assumptions: 
1. No other factor, apart from internet speed and customer service exists, which could significantly impact the votes for the Worst Business Award (WBA)
2. There is a connection/link between customer service and votes for Worst Business award i.e. a significant number of customers who received poor customer service will go on to give a negative vote for CI in this award poll.

With this understanding,  lets look at the options.

A) In the voting for last year’s Worst Business of the Year award, Chapter earned at least three times as many votes as did the second-most hated company.
Not relevant. Does not address the causality (Customer service -> votes for WBA).

B) The quality of a company’s customer service affects some of the voters for the Worst Business of the Year award. 
Correct. In line with assumption 2, though some has a little bit of ambiguity attached to it. We can negate to be certain, and get back to this after checking other options.
Negated: the quality of Customer service does not affect any of the people who vote for WBA. This will definitely break the conclusion. Hence, option B is the correct choice.

C) Internet providers are not the only businesses in the running for the Worst Business of the Year award.
Not relevant. Does not address the causality (Customer service -> votes for WBA).

D) If Chapter did not hold a monopoly in the high-speed internet industry, market forces would compel it to provide better customer service.
Does talk about Customer Service but does not address the effect of the causality. This does not tell us anything about how Customer Service impacts votes for WBA. Hence, no impact on the conclusion.

E) Voters for the Worst Business of the Year award are not influenced by previous years’ results.
Tricky choice. The issue is that even if voters are influenced by last year's results, if last year's results are because of the poor customer service, then the root cause would still be customer service. 
Poor Customer Service = A. Votes for WBA = B. Last year's results = C.

Our conclusion is A causes B. 
Option E negated is C influences B i.e. C in some way leads to/causes B
What if A causes C? Then even if C causes B, A causes C causes B i.e. poor customer service is still the root cause of votes for WBA this year. So, the conclusion is not necessarily broken by the negation of option E.

Hope this helps.

chetan2u · Answer

pikolo2510 ,

So we have two choices left which are seemingly close. But we have to choose the BEST..

Let us rephrase para..
 Chapter internet => doubles internet speed => Still worst rated award.
Internet speed is good, but the customer service is a question mark. That is why they are worst rated.

Without looking at the choices, where is the GAP? -   
It is  the connection between customer service and ratings  OR  customer service MORE important than high speed internet service while peo ple vote.

Only B is close to one of the assumptions.
Now negating B.
 
The negation will NOT be   The quality of a company’s customer service will not affect some of the voters for the Worst Business of the Year award.  
Why?
 If you take this as negation, " it will not affect some " would mean " it will affect others" , but that would actually be same as the choice. THat is not negation.

So what should be the negation..
   All of the voters are NOT affected by the quality of....   
This is WHY B is correct.

Let us take E.
 
This is not filling up the GAP. 
 Voters are not influenced by previous YEARS' results. so, it is just not one year but all the previous years. And the company has been worst only last year, so maybe previous to that, the company was not worst . So, if the previous years have been MIX of good and bad standings, we cannot say that the influence can be only awarding worst award.
YES, it is a strong contender for STRENGTHENING the conclusion, but not for assumption as it talks of years and not just one year.

But between B and E, B is the winner.

redskull1 · Answer

Assuming this is a assumption question I am against the OA here...B is mentioned in the passage.E isnt.

Posted from my mobile device

pikolo2510 · Answer

nightblade354   GMATNinja   gmat1393   chetan2u

Can you take a look at this question? It is pretty close between B and E

- If I negate option E, the arguments fails completely

- If I negate Option B
"The quality of a company’s customer service   does not   affect some of the voters for the Worst Business of the Year award."
The argument still stands, because customer service doesn't affect some voters but it does affect some voters. The word "Some" is key in option B.

Hence answer should be Option E. 
Let me know your thoughts

redskull1 · Answer

The OA as I see has changed from B to E...

B I think is incorrect because 
 The quality of a company’s customer service affects some of the voters for the Worst Business of the Year award.  is a paraphrase of  the company did nothing to address its poor customer service, which explains why Chapter won the Worst Business of the Year award again last year .

QueerReminiscence · Answer

Explanation: Let us assume that "Voters for the Worst Business of the Year award ARE influenced by previous years’ results". In that case their votes would be an outcome of previous year's results rather than poor customer service. While coming to the conclusion that the award was due to poor customer services, author would have assumed that "Voters for the Worst Business of the Year award ARE NOT influenced by previous years’ results". I prefer E.

chetan2u · Answer

Hi, I think you will have to look into your logic of B.. you are absolutely correct with negation part but somehow have applied it erroneously.

Para argues.. poor customer service leads to the award ...
1) what you are assuming it as " the POOR quality of customer service effects some of the voters", that is these voters have suffered due to the quality.
2) But the poor word is not there. So the choice actually means that " the quality of service affects the voters decision in the way he votes.
So if the 2nd is the case, negation means " none of the voter get influenced by quality of service while they cast their votes. So if they are not influenced by the quality , the connection between customer service and voting is broken and argument falls flat..

If it meant the case 1, the wordings would have been a bit different.

Finally we may disagree but let the OA remain what the institute has to say because you are reading it wrong.

danowe · Answer

I choose E
Here is my thought:
poor customer service → the only reason why Chapter won the worst company this year
If the voters are influenced by the previous year's result, they will be more likely to vote for Chapter. It is the stereotype makes the company worst company, not the customer service.
Am I thinking too much?

Aviral1995 · Answer

This information is from Ron's videos: If you have difficulty in negating the argument use IT IS NOT TRUE THAT BEFORE THE ARGUMENT

b. The quality of a company’s customer service affects some of the voters for the Worst Business of the Year award
nEGATION
it is not true that The quality of a company’s customer service affects some of the voters for the Worst Business of the Year award
means 
The quality of a company’s customer service affects none of the voters for the Worst Business of the Year award- clearly destroys the conclusion

e.Voters for the Worst Business of the Year award are not influenced by previous years’ results.
negation - it is not true that Voters for the Worst Business of the Year award are not influenced by previous years’ results.
means Voters for the Worst Business of the Year award are influenced by previous years’ results- we don ot have information about many previous years but just about 1 year based on which the conclusion about second year is made. E is wrong

Hope it helps!

Skywalker18 · Answer

Two years ago Chapter Internet, the only internet provider in the country to offer high-speed internet access, handily won the Worst Business of the Year award, earning three times as many votes as the company that came in second. Last year Chapter made technological improvements which doubled the average speed of its customers’ internet service. However, the company did nothing to address its poor customer service, which explains why Chapter won the Worst Business of the Year award again last year.

Type-assumption
Conclusion- However, the company did nothing to address its poor customer service, which explains why Chapter won the Worst Business of the Year award again last year.
The company did nothing to address its poor customer service---> Chapter Internet won the Worst business of the year again last year

A) In the voting for last year’s Worst Business of the Year award, Chapter earned at least three times as many votes as did the second-most hated company.- incorrect- this even on negation has no effect on conclusion

B) The quality of a company’s customer service affects some of the voters for the Worst Business of the Year award.

C) Internet providers are not the only businesses in the running for the Worst Business of the Year award.- incorrect,

D) If Chapter did not hold a monopoly in the high-speed internet industry, market forces would compel it to provide better customer service.- incorrect,

E) Voters for the Worst Business of the Year award are not influenced by previous years’ results.

I was down to options B and E and later chose option E.
B on negation - The quality of a company’s customer service affects none of the voters for the Worst Business of the Year award.

E on negation - Voters for the Worst Business of the Year award are influenced by previous years’ results.

AjiteshArun  ,  GMATNinja  ,  MagooshExpert  ,  GMATGuruNY  ,  VeritasPrepBrian  ,  MartyTargetTestPrep  ,  DmitryFarber  ,  VeritasKarishma  ,  generis  , other experts - please enlighten

DmitryFarberMPrep · Answer

E is too strong to be a necessary assumption. If we negate it, all it says is that voters ARE INFLUENCED. It doesn't say how they end up voting or why they make that choice. Something can be a factor without overruling another explanation. For instance, if I buy three new fancy cars and go bankrupt, someone might (reasonably) conclude that buying the cars led to my bankruptcies. They aren't assuming that I had no other new financial burdens, just that no other factors were significant enough to have triggered my bankruptcy. To be necessary, E would need to say something along the lines of "Most voters don't just vote for the same business as last year, regardless of its current practices."

menonpriyanka92 · Answer

Hi Dmitry,
In case of B, how do we assume that customer service for 'some' of the voters was impactful or the reason for winning the Worst business of the year award? Doesn't 'some' bring in ambiguity with it?

DmitryFarberMPrep · Answer

Yes, "some" has a great deal of ambiguity to it. All it means is "more than zero"! However, that's not a problem at all. The point on an assumption question is to find something necessary to the argument, not something that proves the argument correct. How do we tell if something is necessary? See what happens when we take it away.

Try negating answer choice B. Since "some" means "more than zero," the negation of B is "The quality of a company’s customer service affects NONE of the voters for the Worst Business of the Year award." If quality of service has no effect on the voters for this award (no effect at all--direct or indirect), then it hardly seems possible that poor service is the reason for the award. That's what makes B necessary.

dcummins · Answer

OFFICIAL EXPLANATION
 
(1) Identify the Question
The word assumption in the question indicates the question type: Find the Assumption.

(2) Deconstruct the Argument
Chapter Internet, which has a monopoly on high-speed internet, won the Worst Business of the Year award two years ago. Last year, the company improved its technology but did not improve its customer service (CS). The author concludes that the latter fact is the reason Chapter won the award again last year.

Here is one possible way to map the argument.

CI improved speeds, didn’t improve CS

won award

This is a standard argument of correlation and causation. From the fact that two things both happened (Chapter not improving its customer service; Chapter winning the award), the author concludes that one of those things (bad customer service) caused the other (winning the award).

(3) State the Goal
The goal in this question is to identify a necessary assumption in the argument: something that must be true in order for the conclusion to be true, given the evidence.

(4) Work From Wrong to Right

(A) This may be true, but the author doesn’t have to assume it. It doesn’t matter by what margin Chapter won the award; what matters is the reason Chapter won the award.

(B) CORRECT. The argument indicates that bad customer service was correlated with Chapter’s receipt of the award, but the author never provides any reason to believe that those two factors are causally related. If none of the voters actually cared about customer service, then the author’s conclusion that bad customer service caused Chapter to win the award is completely groundless. Thus, the author must assume that customer service matters to the award voters.

(C) Other businesses or industries are irrelevant. Even if internet providers were the only companies in the running for the Worst Business of the Year, the author could still be correct in claiming that Chapter won because of its poor customer service.

(D) What would happen if certain conditions came to pass has no bearing on the reason Chapter actually won the award last year. This choice attempts to explain one of the premises of the argument (that Chapter has poor customer service). On assumption questions, the answer should further explain the conclusion, not the premises.

(E) Even if award voters were influenced by previous years’ results, customer service could still be to blame for Chapter winning the Worst Business award, so the argument does not depend on this statement.
For example, some voters might not have voted for Chapter because they were bored of seeing the same company win year after year, yet Chapter won anyway, maybe because other voters thought Chapter had bad customer service. This would be compatible with the argument. Or, if half of the voters were influenced one way and half the other, then this information would have no effect on the argument whatsoever. A choice that requires its own assumptions in order to be relevant to the argument is never correct on the GMAT.

RAHUL_GMAT · Answer

Dear Payal,

Thanks for your reply, but ifor E

if last year's results are because of the technological glitches, then the root cause would not be customer service.

I still think E is the correct answer

Where it is clearly stating

A-> B is incorrect because it is C--> B not A...

mSKR · Answer

You missed one subtle difference.
Check:

Conclusion of worst business year award is based on: "company did nothing to address its poor customer service" not on "just because voters vote against". Voters vote against because of poor quality service, not because they have benefits of voting against.
IF E correct, it means you are referring that even company has improved its service, still voters vote against it. -this is not given in passage.

jabhatta2 · Answer

Hi  ReedArnoldMPREP  - this is a non-official question so i am a bit skeptical

how would you eliminate (E) ?

(e) if negated becomes

"if   voters   voted for " Chapter Internet " to be the worst business LAST YEAR just because " Chapter Internet " was the worst business  TWO YEAR AGO

-- that indicates--

lack of customer service   was not the driver for why " Chapter Internet " got the worst business award LAST YEAR.

jabhatta2 · Answer

^^  ReedArnoldMPREP 
On the other hand – I don’t think (B) has to be  necessarily true.

Why do the voters have to be personally affected by the  lack of customer service ?

Perhaps the voters are folks who don’t even have internet providers themselves.

The voters chose  Chapter Internet  to be the worst business of the year last year because 
- the voters interviewed customers of  Chapter Internet 
- the voters conducted surveys of customers of  Chapter Internet 
- the voters reviewed yelp reviews of customers of  Chapter Internet

Why should the voters of  Chapter Internet  themselves be customers/clients of  Chapter Internet ?

ReedArnoldMPREP · Answer

For E, I think I'd echo Dmitry's argument from above. "are not influenced by" is too weak to be a NECESSARY assumption, and to negate the answer and say they ARE INFLUENCED BY isn't strong to really RUIN the argument.

If E said "Many Voters for the Worst Business of the Year award do not simply vote for last years' winner," or "Voters for the Worst Business of the Year award are very likely to vote for last years' winner regardless of the bussiness's performance this year," I'd agree that this is a necessary assumption. But E doesn't say that. It says *influenced by*, which is a pretty tepid metric.

Now regarding B, this:

is fundamentally the question at hand. The conclusion is: "  explains why Chapter won the Worst Business of the Year award again last year."

You're asking the exact right questions. Why did it have to be customer service?

Well... the author is assuming it was in order to draw the conclusion! This is what B states.

Two years ago Chapter Internet, the only internet provider in the coun

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