Self-paced
Travel industry consultant: Several airlines are increasing elbow room and leg room in business class, because surveys show that business travelers value additional space more than, say, better meals. ███ ████████ ███ █████████████ █████ ███ ███████ ██ ██████████ ██████ ██ █████████ ████ ██████ ███████ █████ ██ ███ ███████ ██ ███████ ██████████ ███████ █████ █████████ ████████ ██ ███████ ██ ███ ███████ ████████
Summarize Argument
The travel industry consultant concludes that these airlines are too concerned about the comfort of business class travelers and should instead prioritize the comfort of leisure travelers. He bases this on the fact that 80% of all airline tickets are purchased by leisure travelers.
Notable Assumptions
The travel industry consultant assumes that the comfort of leisure travelers is more important than the comfort of business class travelers, simply because leisure travelers purchase more tickets.
He also assumes that, just because leisure travelers purchase 80% of airline tickets overall, they also purchase 80% of tickets on each airline. It’s possible that the airlines that conducted these surveys are luxury airlines with far fewer leisure travelers than most airlines have.
3.
Which one of the following, ██ █████ ████ ███████ ███ █████████ ██ ███ ██████ ████████ ████████████ █████████
a
Business travelers often ████ ██████ █████████ █████ ██ ███████ ████ ████ █ █████ ███████ ██████ █████ █████████
This may explain why airlines are working to improve business travelers’ comfort, but it doesn’t weaken the conclusion that airlines should instead focus on leisure travelers. We can’t assume that focusing on leisure travelers would make business travelers feel less valued.
b
Some airlines have █████████ ████ ████ ████ █████████ ███████████ ██ ███████ █████ ██████████ ███ ██████ █████████ ████ ██ █████ ██████ ██ ███ ████ ███████
We don't know what "alterations" means here. It could mean reducing space for leisure travelers to increase it for business travelers. Either way, (B) doesn't weaken the conclusion that airlines should prioritize leisure travelers over business travelers.
c
Sleeping in comfort ██████ ████ ███████ ██ ███ ███ ███████ ███████ ██ ███████ ██████████
It doesn’t matter what the primary concern of leisure travelers is. We need an answer choice that shows that just because they purchase 80% of all airline tickets doesn’t mean that leisure travelers’ comfort is more important than other passengers’ comfort.
d
A far greater ██████████ ██ ██ █████████ ████████ ██ ███████ ████ ████████ █████████ ████ ████ ███████ ██████████
(D) weakens the argument by implying that the assumption that leisure travelers’ comfort is more important because they purchase 80% of airline tickets is false. Just because they purchase more tickets, doesn’t mean that leisure travelers contribute more to airlines’ revenues.
e
Most leisure travelers ███ ███████ ███████ ████ ████ █████ ███ ███████████
This doesn’t weaken the author’s conclusion because we don’t know how much these discounted fares affect airlines’ profits. The assumption remains that, just because leisure travelers purchase 80% of tickets, their comfort should be prioritized.