Self-study
Sales manager: Last year the total number of meals sold in our company's restaurants was much higher than it was the year before. █████████ █████████ ████ ███ █████ ██████████
███████████ ██ ███ ████ ██ ██████████ ████████████ ████████ ███ ████ ████ ███ ██████ ██ █████ ████ ████████ █████████ █████████████ ██ █████ ███ ██ ███ ███████████ ████ ███ ██ █████████ ████ ████ ████ ███ ███ ████ ███████ ███ ████████████ ██ ███ █████ ██ █████████ ███ ███████ ██████████ █████ ████ ████ █████ ██ █████████████████ ████ ████ ███ █████ ██ ████ █████ ███████ ████ ██████ █ ██████████ ███████ ████ ████ ███ ███ ████ █████████████████████ █ █████ ██████ █████ ██████
Summarize Argument
The accountant concludes that the desirability of the company’s meals has decreased. The evidence is that all of the restaurants with sales figures for the prior two years show that fewer meals were sold per restaurant last year compared to the year prior.
Notable Assumptions
The accountant assumes that desirability is the primary factor that affected sales in the last two years. The accountant also assumes that what’s true of the restaurants in question—those that permit a year-by-year comparison—is generally true of the company’s restaurants.
10.
Which one of the following, ██ █████ ████ █████████ █████ ████ ████████ ███ ████████████ █████████
a
The company's restaurants ████ ████ ███████ ████ █████ █████ ████ ██ ███ ███ ██████ ████ ███ ████ ██████████ ███ ████ ███████
We don’t know whether these new dishes were desirable or not. Even if we did know, it wouldn’t weaken the accountant’s argument, since we don’t know what effect dropping these dishes had on sales.
b
Prior to last ████ █████ ███ ██ ███████ ████████ █████ ██ ███ █████████ ██████
S sustained downward trend in sales doesn't weaken the accountant's argument. In fact, without knowing more about why sales are declining, it doesn't make much difference at all.
c
Those of the █████████ ███████████ ████ ███ ████████ █████ █████ ████ ████ ███ ███ █████ █████ █████████ ██ ██████ ██ ███████ ██████████
Some restaurants increased sales without large discounts... so what? We still don't know how strong the connection between desirability and declining sales really is, so this doesn't help us.
d
Sales of the █████████ ████ █████████ ████ ███████████ ██████ ██ ███ ███████ ████████ █████ █████████
We’re not interested in specific meals because we don't know anything about their desirability—we still don't know how desirability has affected sales. This isn't relevant.
e
Most of the █████████ ███████████ ████ ████ ██ █████████ ██████████ ████ ████ ████ ███ ███ ████ ██████ ███ ███████ ██ █████ █████ █████████ ███████████ █ ██████ ███████ ███████ ██ ██████ ████ █████
This is an alternative explanation for the sales decline at the restaurants in question: it's a financial issue. This undermines the accountant's conclusion that desirability was the main factor.