Business School Dean: We are all in agreement that we must cut

Question

Business School Dean: We are all in agreement that  we must cut unnecessary costs in order to afford our popular international study programs , a hallmark of our unique offering that prospective students know us for. But cutting the marketing budget would be a terrible idea; after all,  our unique international programs cannot attract prospective students if we do not properly market them.

The portions highlighted in boldface play which of the following roles?

A. The first is a conclusion that the dean opposes; the second is a conclusion that the dean supports.

B. The first is a consideration that supports the dean’s conclusion; the second is that conclusion.

C. The first is a consideration that the dean agrees with; the second is support for the dean’s conclusion.

D. The first is a conclusion that the dean supports; the second is evidence for that conclusion.

E. The first is a consideration that the dean agrees with; the second is the dean’s conclusion.

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bv8562 · Answer

C IMO: The first is a consideration that the dean agrees with; the second is support for the dean’s conclusion.

Dean's conclusion is : But cutting the marketing budget would be a terrible idea.

And the sentence after it is the support for the conclusion.

LucienH · Answer

"Business School Dean: We are all in agreement that we must cut unnecessary costs in order to afford our popular international study programs, a hallmark of our unique offering that prospective students know us for. But cutting the marketing budget would be a terrible idea; after all, our unique international programs cannot attract prospective students if we do not properly market them."

IMO C

The Dean's conclusion seems to be: "Cutting the marketing budget would be a terrible idea".

The first bold sentence is a consideration that the Dean agrees with: "We must cut unnecessary costs  " 
The second acts as a support for the Dean's conclusion: he is explaining why he thinks that the marketing budget shouldn't be reduce

Bunuel · Answer

VERITAS PREP OFFICIAL SOLUTION:

As you assess the argument and scan the answer choices, it should become clear that you will need to determine the dean's conclusion. A few things are important in finding that: 1) note the word "but" to begin the second sentence. Transition language like that often signifies that the author is transitioning between contextual information and her main point, so you should pay even closer attention past "but" to find the conclusion there. 2) Remember the "why test" - in order to be a conclusion, a statement must be backed up with a reason "why" it's true somewhere else in the argument.

Note that the non-bolded initial clause of that sentence "cutting the marketing budget would be a terrible idea" does have a reason why: because if you did that, students wouldn't know about these great programs. The bolded portion does not have a reason why: "our unique programs cannot attract students if we do not properly market them" is given as a fact without the rest of the argument explaining why.

From that, you should see that the second bolded portion exists to support the author's conclusion. This will narrow you down to choices (C) and (D).

From there, play the answers against each other. (C) says that the second portion is used to support the dean's conclusion, while (D) says that it's evidence for "that conclusion," meaning the first bolded portion. "our unique programs cannot attract students if we do not properly market them" does support the conclusion that cutting marketing would be a bad idea (choice C) but it doesn't support the idea that "we should cut unnecessary costs" (choice D). So the correct answer is (C).

VerbalBot · Answer

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Business School Dean: We are all in agreement that we must cut

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