Southern Seas offers vacations to various international destinations

Question

Southern Seas offers vacations to various international destinations on its large cruise ship. To meet a demand voiced by some of its regular customers, Southern Seas is considering allowing a certain number of travelers to load their vehicles into the ship's cargo hold so they can be used at certain destinations. Since high fees can be charged for each loaded car, Southern Seas' management believes such a service would be profitable.

The answer to which of the following would be most useful in evaluating the argument?

The answer to which of the following would be most useful in evaluating the argument?

(A) Would the price of the extra vehicle-loading service alone be more than 50% of the price of a regular journey?

(B) How many car-rental companies at the destinations visited by the Southern Seas cruise would be badly affected by the new service?

(C) Can Southern Seas secure a deal with its fuel suppliers which will grant them a significant discount on the price of extra ship fuel?

(D) How much would outfitting the ship's cargo hold to protect regular vehicles from potential damage caused by the current levels of moisture and salt cost?

(E) Are the prices of cruises to international destinations projected to decline in the near future?

Bunuel · Accepted Answer

OFFICIAL EXPLANATION

Southern Seas offers vacations to various international destinations on its large cruise ship. To meet a demand voiced by some of its regular customers, Southern Seas is considering allowing a certain number of travelers to load their vehicles into the ship's cargo hold so they can be used at certain destinations. Since high fees can be charged for each loaded car, Southern Seas' management believes such a service would be profitable.

The answer to which of the following would be most useful in evaluating the argument?

The answer to which of the following would be most useful in evaluating the argument?

(A) Would the price of the extra vehicle-loading service alone be more than 50% of the price of a regular journey?

Incorrect.

To solve this Investigation question, first break down the argument. The first two sentences are premises. The first part of the last sentence is another premise as it follows the reason conjunction since, while the second part uses the conclusion word believes which tells us it is not a premise, but instead the argument's conclusion:

Premise: a company runs a cruise service 
 +
Premise: it is considering a new vehicle loading service
 +
Premise: the revenue from this new service could be high
 =
Management's Conclusion: the car-loading service would be profitable

Vital factor: ?

You are required to find the factor which is most crucial to the author's conclusion. The correct answer is a question which could support or weaken the conclusion depending on its answer.

Note that this is a profit question. The new service will be profitable if revenue is greater than costs/expenses. Therefore, valuable questions are those which provide information on either revenue, costs, or their relation.

This answer choice only compares the revenue generated by the vehicle-loading service to that generate by another service. It doesn't say anything about how high the revenue will be.

(B) How many car-rental companies at the destinations visited by the Southern Seas cruise would be badly affected by the new service?

Incorrect.

Answering this question would not help us evaluate whether the new service would be profitable. The fact that it may have other consequences on the market is irrelevant.

(C) Can Southern Seas secure a deal with its fuel suppliers which will grant them a significant discount on the price of extra ship fuel?

Incorrect.

This answer choice deals with costs, so it could potentially be the correct one. However, answering this question will give us information that may or may not affect profitability, mainly because we don't know whether the ships even need extra fuel or how much - it is not stated anywhere, so we can't assume this.

Therefore, we are not much closer to finding out if there will be profits from this service. There is another answer choice which can provide data that is directly relevant to profitability. Find it!

(D) How much would outfitting the ship's cargo hold to protect regular vehicles from potential damage caused by the current levels of moisture and salt cost?

This answer choice presents a question that would provide information on some of the potential costs of the project (How much would   cost?). As such, it is the most relevant out of the five answer choice for evaluating the profitability of the new service and, therefore, the validity of the conclusion.

(E) Are the prices of cruises to international destinations projected to decline in the near future?

Incorrect.

To solve this Investigation question, first break down the argument. The first two sentences are premises. The first part of the last sentence is another premise as it follows the reason conjunction since, while the second part uses the conclusion word believes which tells us it is not a premise, but instead the argument's conclusion:

Premise: a company runs a cruise service 
 +
Premise: it is considering a new vehicle loading service
 +
Premise: the revenue from this new service could be high
 =
Management's Conclusion: the car-loading service would be profitable

Vital factor: ?

You are required to find the factor which is most crucial to the author's conclusion. The correct answer is a question which could support or weaken the conclusion depending on its answer.

Note that this is a profit question. The new service will be profitable if revenue is greater than costs/expenses. Therefore, valuable questions are those which provide information on either revenue, costs, or their relation.

While this answer choice deals with revenue, it is not the most valuable out of the five. First, it only tells us whether or not a decline in revenue would occur, not how great or small it would be. Second, it refers to a decline in existing cruises; we don't know how this would affect the revenue from the new service.

raj94knp · Answer

D SHOULD BE THE ANSWER. If cost is greater that extra income than not profitable if it is less the profitable.

winterschool · Answer

Southern Seas offers vacations to various international destinations on its large cruise ship. To meet a demand voiced by some of its regular customers, Southern Seas is considering allowing a certain number of travelers to load their vehicles into the ship's cargo hold so they can be used at certain destinations. Since high fees can be charged for each loaded car, Southern Seas' management believes such a service would be profitable.

The answer to which of the following would be most useful in evaluating the argument?

The answer to which of the following would be most useful in evaluating the argument?

(A) Would the price of the extra vehicle-loading service alone be more than 50% of the price of a regular journey?  Incorrect

cant find out it is profitable or not

(B) How many car-rental companies at the destinations visited by the Southern Seas cruise would be badly affected by the new service?  Incorrect

already know some passengers need this service, so it offers this service to certain passengers

(C)  Can Southern Seas secure a deal with its fuel suppliers which will grant them a significant discount on the price of extra ship fuel?   Correct

this can be a cause for profit
 
(D) How much would outfitting the ship's cargo hold to protect regular vehicles from potential damage caused by the current levels of moisture and salt cost?  Incorrect

it cant helpful to find out about profits, if extra fuel charge is higher or lower than normal price; outfitting the ship's cargo can be changed to useful by one time cost
 
(E) Are the prices of cruises to international destinations projected to decline in the near future?  Incorrect

this can be true for all travel agency's

Its_me_aka_ak · Answer

as for C, we cant assume that extra fuel is needed or not, we cant also assume for D that the company will cover any damage caused to the vehicles so that way both are wrong. Kindly explain.

sayan640 · Answer

KarishmaB   HarshR9  Can you please explain what options C and E are wrong?

Posted from my mobile device

A_Nishith · Answer

To evaluate the argument about the profitability of allowing travelers to load their vehicles onto Southern Seas' cruise ship, we need to consider factors that could impact the feasibility and profitability of this new service.

Argument Analysis:

Premise:  Southern Seas is considering allowing travelers to load their vehicles onto the ship to use at certain destinations.
 Premise:  High fees can be charged for each loaded car.
 Conclusion:  Management believes this service would be profitable.

The key to evaluating this argument is understanding the costs and potential profitability of the service. We need to identify factors that could affect either the costs of implementing this service or the revenue it could generate.

Evaluation of Each Question:

(A) Would the price of the extra vehicle-loading service alone be more than 50% of the price of a regular journey?

This question addresses whether customers would find the additional cost acceptable. However, it does not directly address the cost to the company or overall profitability.

(B) How many car-rental companies at the destinations visited by the Southern Seas cruise would be badly affected by the new service?

This question addresses potential competition but does not directly relate to the profitability of the service for Southern Seas.

(C) Can Southern Seas secure a deal with its fuel suppliers which will grant them a significant discount on the price of extra ship fuel?

This question is relevant as fuel costs could significantly impact the overall cost of offering this service. Lower fuel costs could make the service more profitable.

(D) How much would outfitting the ship's cargo hold to protect regular vehicles from potential damage caused by the current levels of moisture and salt cost?

This question is highly relevant as it directly addresses the costs of implementing the service. Knowing the cost of outfitting the cargo hold is essential to determine if the potential revenue from high fees will outweigh the initial and ongoing costs.

(E) Are the prices of cruises to international destinations projected to decline in the near future?

This question addresses the overall market for cruises but does not specifically impact the new vehicle-loading service's profitability.

The most useful question in evaluating the argument is:

D . How much would outfitting the ship's cargo hold to protect regular vehicles from potential damage caused by the current levels of moisture and salt cost?

This question directly addresses a significant potential cost factor, which is critical in determining whether the service can be profitable.

Southern Seas offers vacations to various international destinations

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Southern Seas offers vacations to various international destinations

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615 to 715 in 15 Days (Ria's Strategies)

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