Self-study
The average cable television company offers its customers 50 channels, but Support new fiber-optic lines will enable telephone companies to provide 100 to 150 television channels to their customers for the same price as cable companies charge for 50. ██████████ █████ █████████ ████ ██ █████████ ██ ███ ███ ██████████ ████████ ███████ ██ █████████ █████████ ██████ █ ███ ██████
Summarize Argument
The author concludes that cable companies won’t be able to survive the fiber-optic revolution. This is because fiber-optic cables allow telephone companies to offer up to 150 channels for the same price cable companies charge for 50 channels.
Notable Assumptions
The author assumes that customers will generally choose packages with more channels at the same price—in other words that the number of channels is the key factor, and not which channels are included.
The author also assumes that the cost of providing channels isn't offset by other costs—for example, that cable companies don’t bundle their services in a way that's overall more cost-efficient.
2.
Which one of the following, ██ █████ ████ █████ ██ ██████████ ███ █████████
a
The initial cost ███ █████████ ██ ██████████ ███ ███████████ ██████████ ███████ ████ ██████ ███ ███████ ████ ██ ██████████ █████ ██████████ ████████
This weakens the argument for the fiber-optic revolution. Even if telephone companies can offer channels at a cheaper price, the installation fee might mitigate some of that benefit.
b
The most popular ██████ ███ ████████ ██ ████████ ███████ ██ █████ █████████ ████ ████ ██ ███████ ██ ████████ ███████ ██ ███ ███████████ █████ █████ ██ ███ █████████ ██████████
Customers generally won’t lose out on any of their favorite programs if they switch to fiber-optic, they’ll simply get more choices for the same price. This strengthens the idea that fiber-optic will be the preferred option.
c
Cable television companies ████ ███████ ██ ███████████ ████ ███ █████████ █████████ ██ ██████████ ███ ██████ ██ ████████ ████ ██████
If we assume that cable companies won't raise prices, this seems to weaken the author’s argument. If cable companies do raise prices, then it makes no difference to the argument—fiber still wins on price-per-channel.
d
Some telephone companies ███ █████ █████████ ██ █████ █████ ████ █████ ██ █████ ████ ███████ █████████ █████████
This is irrelevant, because cable services and phone services operating in different areas aren't in competition. There's no reason that this would affect pricing or services offered.
e
The new fiber-optic ████████ ███████ ██ █████████ █████████ ████ ██ ███████ ██ ████ █████████ ████████████ ███████████ ███████████ ████ █████ ██ █████ █████ █████████ ███ ███ ████████
This if anything weakens the author’s argument: some people’s favorite shows might be regulated out of existence on the fiber-optic services.