A jewellery manufacturer produces rings in two metalsgold and

Question

A jewellery manufacturer produces rings in two metals—gold and platinum. The manufacturer has noted that, over the last three years, the gold rings have consistently outsold the platinum ones by a large margin, even though the designs available in both the metals are exactly the same. This has led the manufacturer to conclude that consumers prefer gold to platinum.

Which of the following, if true, most seriously weakens the argument?

(A) Over the last three years, diamond rings have outsold both gold and platinum ones.
(B) Jewellery buyers give more importance to design than to the metal used.
(C) Platinum is easier to maintain than is gold.
(D) Platinum rings take longer to produce than do gold rings.
(E) Gold rings cost considerably less than do platinum ones.

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yazadsarkari · Answer

E

Gold rings cost significantly lesser that’s why customers buy gold

bb · Answer

This question seems to have 2 correct answers (unless someone can prove one of them incorrect):

Correct: (D) Platinum rings take longer to produce than do gold rings. 
This is a weak correct answer since we do not know if platinum rings take 1% or 1000% more time to make but they could take significantly more time and thus a much more limited quantity would be made and therefore sold. If there is not enough inventory, then the sales would not be reflective of customer prefernce but rather availability of rings.

Correct: (E) Gold rings cost considerably less than do platinum ones. 
This is a stronger correct answer implying that if people cannot afford to buy Platinum Rings, So the conclusion that people prefer gold to platinum is no longer valid because there is a component introduced of affordability and if people cannot afford an item they may still preferred but just not buying it....  My Problem with this answer choice:  There’s a bit of a disconnect in terms of affordability and preference.... The question is not bad, but for E) to be correct, we have to assume that people prefer Platinum but then settle for Gold instead. If people are buying a lot more gold rings/metal, I think we can say that they prefer gold becuase they could choose to wait and save up money for platinum but that's just me.

So at the end, E is likely the MOST Seriously weakening the argument based on the GMAT CR Rules, but D also weakens it and E has an issue when it equates affordability and preference. (my opinion. no offense to the question writer).

bronaugust · Answer

To solve this question, let us deploy  IMS's four-step technique .

STEP #1   ->  IDENTIFY THE QUESTION TYPE

Let us read the question stem to identify the question type.
 
The stem indicates a  weakening  question.

STEP #2   ->  X-RAY THE ARGUMENT

In a  weakening  question, it is a must to x-ray the argument and deconstruct it by figuring out the conclusion and the premise. Let us therefore read the argument first and deconstruct it soon after.
 
 CONCLUSION:  Consumers prefer gold to platinum.
 PREMISE:  Over the last three years, the gold rings have consistently outsold the platinum ones by a large margin, even though the designs available in both the metals are exactly the same.

STEP #3   ->  FRAME A SHADOW ANSWER

To frame a shadow answer, we must know what the correct answer should do. In this question, the correct answer must weaken the argument; a great way to weaken this argument would be to cast doubt on its conclusion.

SHADOW ANSWER:  Any situation that leads us to believe that consumers do not necessarily prefer gold to platinum despite the fact that gold rings, which have the same designs as the platinum rings, have consistently outsold platinum rings by a large margin.

STEP #4   ->  ELIMINATE INCORRECT ANSWERS

Options that do not match the shadow answer can be eliminated.

(A)  Over the last three years, diamond rings have outsold both gold and platinum ones.  |  NOT A MATCH  |  This option discusses diamond rings; however, the argument does not concern itself with diamond rings in the first place. Therefore, even if what is stated in this option were to be true, we would still not have a reason to believe that consumers do not necessarily prefer gold to platinum.  |  ELIMINATE

(B)  Jewellery buyers give more importance to design than to the metal used.  |  NOT A MATCH  |  If jewellery buyers actually give more importance to design than to the metal used, they may opt for either gold or platinum since rings made of both metals have the same designs; this option therefore definitely does not lead us to believe that consumers do not necessarily prefer gold to platinum.  |  ELIMINATE

(C)  Platinum is easier to maintain than is gold.  |  NOT A MATCH  |  If platinum is easier to maintain than gold, consumers should go for platinum; however, we know that consumers have tended to buy more gold rings than platinum ones. Remember, we need an option that leads us to believe that consumers do not necessarily prefer gold to platinum DESPITE THE FACT THAT gold rings, which have the same designs as the platinum rings, have consistently outsold platinum rings by a large margin. If anything, this option strengthens the author's conclusion by making us believe that customers actually prefer gold to platinum despite the fact that the former is not as easy to maintain as the latter.  |  ELIMINATE

(D)  Platinum rings take longer to produce than do gold rings.  |  NOT A MATCH  |  If platinum rings do take longer to produce than do gold rings, do we have a reason to believe that consumers do not necessarily prefer gold to platinum? Of course not! The time taken to produce rings has got nothing to do with the preference of people.  |  ELIMINATE

(E)  Gold rings cost considerably less than do platinum ones.  |  MATCHES THE SHADOW ANSWER  |  Bingo! This option tells us that gold rings have outsold platinum ones not because people prefer gold over platinum but because gold rings cost CONSIDERABLY less than do platinum ones. This option clearly does exactly what we want the correct answer to do!  |  MARK AND MOVE

Thus, (E) has to be the correct answer.

Chiggy · Answer

Ans is E

Since its a weaken question.
We should focus on casting a doubt upon conclusion.

Conclusion is that people prefer gold over platinum despite having same designs.

We should focus on ans that provides us that why people prefer gold other than this. Reason

Posted from my mobile device

LamboWalker · Answer

Woah, bb on the CR forum is unexpected

wasario · Answer

This question was quite confusing for me so I'm leaving my own explanation here.

From the passage, due to the fact that gold rings sell better than platinum rings despite having the same exact design, the author believes that consumers prefer gold to platinum. It does NOT say that customers prefer gold rings to gold platinum but is rather saying that customers prefer one material over the other.

This is a "weaken the argument" question; in this case, we want an answer choice that gives a different reason to why this trend exists, and more importantly a reason that deviates from the original theory that customers prefer 1 metal to the other.

Looking at the answer choices:

A) The passage and author's stance aren't about diamond, irrelevant.
B) Even if jewelers gave more importance to design, in this passage the designs are exactly the same, so this really has no impact, irrelevant.
C) This would give a reason as to why platinum was more popular than gold, but clearly in the passage this is not the case. So this answer choice is plain incorrect.
D) This and E could both be the correct answer. However, this is not necessarily as convincing as E because while platinum could take significantly longer to produce, it could also take insignificantly longer to produce; it's not clarified in the answer choice here. If it only takes a minute longer to produce than gold, that's not a very convincing case at all to explain the trend. Additionally, as bb said, if rings are produced faster than customers buy them, then this really isn't an issue, as inventory size wouldn't be an issue for customers, making this point moot.
 E)  This seems to be the "more correct" answer, because not only does this say that gold is cheaper than platinum, but that it's CONSIDERABLY cheaper than platinum. This means that there is a very noticeable difference in price, as compared to choice D in which we don't know the severity of production time. As a result, this answer choice provides a much more convincing alternative reason as to why customers prefer the gold rings over the platinum ones.

E  is correct.

Bunuel · Answer

Official Explanation

Answer: E

The argument concludes that just because gold rings sell more than platinum rings, customers prefer the metal gold to the metal platinum. But there can clearly be other reasons why customers prefer gold rings to platinum ones—maybe the gold rings are cheaper or have better designs or are easier to resell. Any such option can weaken the argument. E highlights the cost aspect and should be the correct answer.

(A) The argument is only concerned with gold and platinum rings. Diamond rings are outside the scope of the argument.

(B) This does not necessarily suggest that customers don’t pay attention to the metal used or that gold rings have better designs than platinum ones. Maybe the second item on the customers’ preference checklist, after the design, is the metal used.

(C) So then platinum rings should be selling more, why are gold rings selling more?

(D) The amount of time it takes to produce a ring in either metal is irrelevant.

(E) The correct answer.

A jewellery manufacturer produces rings in two metalsgold and

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