PT102.S2.Q18 > Question

SECTION 1 · rc

PASSAGE 1

Question 1 Question 2 Question 3 Question 4 Question 5 Question 6 Question 7

PASSAGE 2

Question 8 Question 9 Question 10 Question 11 Question 12 Question 13

PASSAGE 3

Question 14 Question 15 Question 16 Question 17 Question 18 Question 19 Question 20 Question 21

PASSAGE 4

Question 22 Question 23 Question 24 Question 25 Question 26

SECTION 2 · lr

Question 1 Question 2 Question 3 Question 4 Question 5 Question 6 Question 7 Question 8 Question 9 Question 10 Question 11 Question 12 Question 13 Question 14 Question 15 Question 16 Question 17 Question 18 Question 19 Question 20 Question 21 Question 22 Question 23 Question 24 Question 25

SECTION 3 · lr

SECTION 4 · lr

The president concludes that the only options for Central Supply Company are to reduce planned expansion, or to eliminate less profitable existing operations. Why? Because if the company’s profits stay low, it may go bankrupt. Because of this, the company needs to prevent further decreases in its already low profits.

Based on the company’s need to prevent its profits from falling, the president concludes that there are only two options: reducing expansion or cutting existing operations. The flaw here is that we have no reason to think that other options might not also be possible—the president never addresses other possibilities. For example, why not increase advertising, or improve existing products?

The president doesn’t ever claim that the company’s survival has been a good thing. The argument is about preventing bankruptcy, not about weighing the company’s impact so far.

The president’s whole argument is about what alternatives may be possible instead of the company needing to declare bankruptcy.

The president never claims that decreased demand is the only thing that can ever cause decreased profits. Saying that decreased demand caused decreased profits in this particular case is not the same thing.

Whether or not it’s possible that profits will decrease only slightly next year is irrelevant to the argument. We already know that if profits continue to fall, the company may go bankrupt. How much they fall doesn’t change that.

The president concludes that there are only two ways to stop the company’s profits from falling, but never tells us why those are the only options. This is a flaw because it means an important part of the conclusion—that these are the “only” options—lacks support.

PrepTest 102 - Section 2 - Question 18

Difficulty

Analysis

Answer Popularity

Question history

Confirm action