Self-study
Support Direct-mail advertising usually consists of advertisements for products to be purchased from the home, so Conclusion the perception that it is bad for the environment is misguided. ███████ ██ ███████████ ████████████ ████████ ██ ██████ ███ ████████ ██ █████ ██ █████████████████ █████ ████████ █████ █████████ ███████ ███ ███ ██ █ ████ ████ ██████ ██████████ ██ ███ ████
Summarize Argument
The author concludes that direct-mail advertising is not bad for the environment. This is because direct-mail advertising usually advertises products to be purchased from home. This leads to millions of people buying products from home. If they didn’t purchase these products at home, purchase of these products would require using a car, which would add pollutants to the air.
Notable Assumptions
The author assumes that a significant proportion of the products bought as a result of direct-mail advertising would still be bought had direct-mail advertising not existed. The author also assumes that there’s no aspect of purchases from home that produce more environmental damage than those purchases would have been had they been purchased after using a car.
25.
Which one of the following, ██ █████ █████ ████ ██████████ ███ █████████
a
Although the primary ██████ ██ ████ ███████████ ███████████ ██ ██ ████████ ██████ ██ ███ ████████ ████ █████ ██████ ██████ ████ ███ ████ ████ ██ █████████ █████ ██ ██████ ██ █████████ ███ ██████ ██ ███ █ ███████ █████ ██ ██████████ ███
This weakens the argument by showing that direct-mail advertising might increase sales in stores, which would generally require use of a car, which would add pollutants to the air.
Directionally wrong
Directionally wrong
Answers that, if they have any effect, do the opposite of what we want (weaken when we're trying to strengthen, or strengthen when we're trying to weaken).
b
Most of the ████████ █████████ ██ ████████ ██ ███████████ ██████████████ █████ ██ █████████ ████ ███████ ███ ███████████ ███████████████
This confirms that without direct-mail advertising, pollutants from in-person sales would actually have occurred. In theory, direct-mail advertisements might have just caused purchases that otherwise wouldn’t have occurred. (B) eliminates this possibility.
c
A person who ████████ ███ █████ █ ███████████ █████████████ ██ ████ ██████ ██ ████████ ███ ███████ ██████████ ████ ██ █ ██████ ███ █████ ██ █████████████ ███ █ ███████ ██ █ ████████ ████ ████ █████████ ███
The comparative effectiveness of direct-mail ads and magazine ads has no clear impact. We already know that people buy products from home due to direct-mail ads. Even if these are more effective than others, we still don’t know the environmental impact of direct-mail ads.
d
Usually, a company ████ █████ ███ ███████████ ██████████████ ███ ████ ██████ ██ █████ ████ ███ ██████ ██ ████ ███ █████████████ ██ ████ █████ ██ ████ ██████████ ██ ███ ███████ ████ █████ ███ ███████ ███████
(D), unlike (B) doesn’t establish that the people who buy products from home would have bought those products without the direct-mail ads. There might be signs those people are more interested in the products, but that doesn’t mean they would buy without the ads.
e
Products purchased as ███ ██████ ██ ███████████ ███████████ ████████ ██ ████████████ █████ ███████ ██ ███ ████████ ████████ █████████ ████ █████
This doesn’t reveal anything about the environmental impact of direct-mail ads. We still don’t know whether direct-mail ads are causing people to buy from home products that would otherwise be purchased by using a car.