Self-study
Conclusion Companies wishing to boost sales of merchandise should use in-store displays to catch customers' attention. █████████ ██ █ █████████ ██████ ███████ ████ ████████ ████ ████ ████ ███ ███████████████ ███ ███ ██████ █████████ ██ ███████████ ████████████ ████████ ████ ████ ██████████ ██ █████ ██████ █████████ ██ ███ ████ ██ ███ ██████
Summary
The author concludes that companies should use in-store displays to make more sales. Her reasoning is that two-thirds of buying decisions are made while in the store.
Notable Assumptions
The author uses customers’ tendency to make in-store decisions as justification for in-store displays. But how do we know that the displays affect customers’ in-store decisions? If customers didn’t pay attention to the displays when making decisions, her reasoning would be unsound.
Therefore, the author has to assume that in-store displays have an effect on shoppers’ on the spot decisions.
13.
Which one of the following ██ ██ ██████████ ████ ███ ████████ █████████
a
Companies are increasingly █████ ████████ ████████ ██ █████ ██████████ ██████████
The author doesn’t have to assume anything about the frequency of displays. They could be increasing, decreasing, or constant; it wouldn’t affect her reasoning in any case.
b
Coupons and direct-mail ███████████ ████ ██ ███ ████ ████ █████████ █████ ██ ████████ █████ ██ ███████████ ████ ████ ███ ████
The author’s conclusion is about the current efficacy of in-store displays; how effective other forms of marketing previously were is irrelevant.
c
In-store displays are ████ ██████ ██ █████████ ██████ █████████ ████ ██ ███ ████ ██ ███ █████ ████ ██ █████████ █████ ██████ ██████████
The author’s reasoning requires that displays influence on the spot decisions, not that they only influence on the spot decisions. If we negated this (displays might influence other decisions even more than in-store decisions), it wouldn’t contradict the author’s argument.
d
In-store displays that █████ ██████████ █████████ ████████ ███ ██████████ ████ █████████ ████ ██████ ██ ███ ████ ██ ███ ███ █████████ ████████████
The author must assume this, because, if it weren’t true, it would contradict her reasoning. The negation is: in-store displays might not increase the likelihood of on the spot purchases. This undermines the author’s argument that using in-store displays would lead to increased sales.
e
Many of today's ████████ ███ ███ ████ ██ ███ ███████ █████████ ██ ████████ █████████
The author is advocating in favor of using in-store displays. So a reason why they wouldn’t be effective can’t possibly be necessary to her argument.