I. Room air conditioners produced by Japanese manufacturers tend to be

Question

I. Room air conditioners produced by Japanese manufacturers tend to be more reliable than those produced by United States manufacturers.

II. The average lifetime of room air conditioners produced by United States manufacturers is about fifteen years, the same as that of room air conditioners produced by Japanese manufacturers.

Which one of the following, if true, would best reconcile the two statements above?

(A) Reliability is a measure of how long a product functions without needing repair

(B) Production facilities of firms designated as United States manufacturers are not all located in the United States

(C) Damage to room air conditioners during shipping and installation does not occur with great frequency in the United States or in Japan

(D) Room air conditioners have been manufactured for a longer time in the United States than in Japan

(E) Japanese manufacturers often use more reliable components in their room air conditioners than do United States manufacturers

MeBossBaby · Answer

I. Room air conditioners produced by Japanese manufacturers tend to be more reliable than those produced by United States manufacturers.
II. The average lifetime of room air conditioners produced by United States manufacturers is about fifteen years, the same as that of room air conditioners produced by Japanese manufacturers.

Pre-thinking: Japanese ACs are more reliable than those produced in USA. But, average lifetime of the two is the same.
So, we need a differentiating factor to call Japanese ACs 'reliable'.

Which one of the following, if true, would best reconcile the two statements above?

(A) Reliability is a measure of how long a product functions without needing repair - This is it!  without needing repair 
(B) Production facilities of firms designated as United States manufacturers are not all located in the United States - Out of Scope
(C) Damage to room air conditioners during shipping and installation does not occur with great frequency in the United States or in Japan - Doesn't help
(D) Room air conditioners have been manufactured for a longer time in the United States than in Japan - Doesn't help either
(E) Japanese manufacturers often use more reliable components in their room air conditioners than do United States manufacturers - This is tempting. But think, Japanese ACs are made with more reliable components, still USA made ACs give an average lifetime of 15 years (same as that of Japanese ACs) This makes USA-made ACs sound superior. This is out.

moropa2018 · Answer

I. Room air conditioners produced by Japanese manufacturers tend to be more reliable than those produced by United States manufacturers.
II. The average lifetime of room air conditioners produced by United States manufacturers is about fifteen years, the same as that of room air conditioners produced by Japanese manufacturers.

Which one of the following, if true, would best reconcile the two statements above?

So, basically the argument is saying that the average lifetime of US air conditioners and Japanese air conditioners is same but Japanese air conditioners are more reliable than US air conditioners. How do you explain the difference?

(A) Reliability is a measure of how long a product functions without needing repair. 
 Even if the average lifetime of both the AC's is same, Japanese AC is more reliable because it functions a long time without needing repair.

(B) Production facilities of firms designated as United States manufacturers are not all located in the United States.
 Location of the production facility does not explain the reliability factor.

(C) Damage to room air conditioners during shipping and installation does not occur with great frequency in the United States or in Japan
 So, if damage does not occur in either of them, then they must be equally reliable. This option is not explaining the difference.

(D) Room air conditioners have been manufactured for a longer time in the United States than in Japan
 Even if manufacturing air conditioners for a longer time indicates better reliability, then according to this statement US air conditioners are more reliable. Not consistent with the argument.

(E) Japanese manufacturers often use more reliable components in their room air conditioners than do United States manufacturers
 If US manufacturers are not using as reliable components as Japanese and yet, US air conditioners have same average life as a Japanese air conditioner, then this makes us believe that US air conditioners are better. Again not consistent with the the argument.

Andrewcoleman · Answer

(B) Production facilities of firms designated as United States manufacturers are not all located in the United States

For the 7% of people picking B.

hypothetically, according to this answer, the production facility that produces US air conditioners "outside the US" could be in Japan, which would not resolve the paradox because they would be from the same place.

unraveled · Answer

I. Room air conditioners produced by Japanese manufacturers tend to be more reliable than those produced by United States manufacturers.

II. The average lifetime of room air conditioners produced by United States manufacturers is about fifteen years, the same as that of room air conditioners produced by Japanese manufacturers.

Which one of the following, if true, would best reconcile the two statements above?

(A) Reliability is a measure of how long a product functions without needing repair - CORRECT. This is required to understand the reason behind better reliability of Japanese manufactured room ACs, but, it is not without the assumption that US manufactured ones require more numbers of repair, which we can't conclude from the given argument.

(B) Production facilities of firms designated as United States manufacturers are not all located in the United States

For the 7% of people picking B.

hypothetically, according to this answer, the production facility that produces US air conditioners "outside the US" could be in Japan, which would not resolve the paradox because they would be from the same place.

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(C) Damage to room air conditioners during shipping and installation does not occur with great frequency in the United States or in Japan - WRONG. Nothing's there.

(D) Room air conditioners have been manufactured for a longer time in the United States than in Japan - WRONG. This makes us believe that even after with more experience in manufacturing US manufacturers' ACs have only 15 years of average lifetime. This makes us think that US ACs are not that reliable but a longer experience doesn't guarantee better reliability - it can be a business function also.

(E) Japanese manufacturers often use more reliable components in their room air conditioners than do United States manufacturers - WRONG. A deceiver for a correct answer.

A is not fully acceptable as i see it.

Answer A.

AnirudhaS · Answer

No such assumptions are needed to be made.

Statements say although life of both products are the same, why is the Japanese product considered more reliable?
Option A answers this by saying reliability depends on how many repairs the product needs during its lifetime and not just how long the life of the product is.

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unraveled · Answer

Whether an assumption or an inference has to be made, it is sure that one of them is require for A to be correct. I might be wrong to say it as an assumption but that's the necessary requirement here.

Otherwise the argument is no big deal and i guess POE is better an approach in this case.

AnirudhaS · Answer

Option A says Reliability--> no. of repairs
And the question type is "resolve the paradox"
This does help resolve the paradox right? The option NEVER says that no. of repairs (US) < no. of repairs (Japan). 
We are very well in our right to choose no. of repairs (US) > (Japan) as this resolves the paradox.
I see no fault with this question.

unraveled · Answer

Certainly we can't find faults with official questions.
But don't you think if number of repairs are more for Japanese manufacturer then it raises questions whether Japanese ACs are reliable.
The highlighted text, as you said, would only make things complex, not resolve.

I would have liked option A more had it mentioned that repairs are the  only  measure to know reliability.

VerbalBot · Answer

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I. Room air conditioners produced by Japanese manufacturers tend to be

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