Self-study
Support The more demand there is for something, the easier it is to sell. ███ ████████ ████ ███ █ ████ ███ ████ ██ ████ ████ ███ █████ ████ ███████ ███ █████ ███ ██████ ██ ███████ ████████ ███████ █████ ██ ██████ ██████ ███ ███ █████ ████ ███ ███ █████ ███ ██ ██████ █████████ ████ ███ ██ ███ █████ █████ █████ ████ ████ ████ ███ ████ ████ ███ █████ ███ ███ █████████ ██████ ██ ████ ████ ███ ████ ████ ███ ███ █████ ███ ██ ██████
Summary
The author concludes that used cars that are under 10 years old are usually easier to sell than cars that are at least 10 years old.
Why?
Because the more demand for something, the easier it is to sell.
The author attempts to show that cars under 10 years old are more in demand than cars that are at least 10 years old. How? Because of the level of demand for their parts.
Junkyards are ready to buy cars that are under 10 years old (intermediate conclusion), because the parts of those cars are easy to resell. But junkyards tend not to buy cars that are at least 10 years old (another intermediate conclusion), because there’s not much demand for the parts of those cars.
Notable Assumptions
The author assumes that the demand of junkyards for used cars is reflective of the demand of other potential buyers for those cars, or that other potential buyers don’t make up a significant part of the purchasers of used cars. (This overlooks the possibility that other kinds of buyers, such as regular people looking to replace their daily vehicle, might demand older cars much more than the newer cars. The author must assume either that this possibility isn’t true, or that if it is true, the non-junkyard buyers don’t significantly impact overall demand for used cars.)
The author also assumes that if the parts of a car are in higher demand, it will be easier to sell that car to a junkyard than if the parts are in lower demand.
25.
Which one of the following ██ ██ ██████████ ██ █████ ███ ████████ ████████
a
The salability of █████████ ██ ███ ██████████ ██ ███ ███████ █████ ████ ███ █████ ██ ██████ ███ ███
Not necessary, because even if the salability of something can be influenced by other factors besides demand, we still know from a premise that the more demand for something, the easier it is to sell. Demand for a thing can still play a dominant role in the ease of a sale, even if there are other factors involved. (Notice that the conclusion just says that cars under 10 years old are “generally” easier to sell; this doesn’t mean that they’re always easier to sell.)
b
All used cars ████ ███ ███ █████ ███ ██ █████ ███ ████ ██ ██████████
Not necessary, because even if some used cars that are at least 10 years old are sold to places besides junkyards, the author just needs to assume that the demand of junkyards for those cars is reflective of the demand of other kinds of buyers, or that those other buyers don’t significantly impact overall demand for used cars.
c
In general, the █████ █████████ ███ ███ ████ █████████ ██ ██ ██ █████
Not necessary, because the argument is based on the relationship between demand and ease of selling. Although in this case the newer cars tend to be more in demand than older cars, that doesn’t commit the author to believing that this relationship holds with other items besides cars.
d
When determining the ███████ █████ ██ ████ ████ ████ ███ █████ ████ ███ ████ ██ ██████ █████ ███ ██ ██████ ██ █ ████ ██ ███████
The argument concerns the ease of selling, not the price of cars. In any case, the argument assumes that cars that are less than 10 years old are in higher demand. So (D)’s reference to “lack of demand” for cars less than 10 years old doesn’t make sense.
e
The salability of ████ ████ ███ ███ █████ ███ ██ █████ ██ ███████ █ ████████ ██ ███ █████ ██ ██████ ███ █████ ██████
Necessary, because if it were not true — if the salability of cars that are at least 10 years old is NOT largely a function of the level of demand for their parts — then the author would not be able to go from “little demand for car parts that are at least 10 years old” to “junkyards tend not to buy cars that are at least 10 years old.” The author’s overlooking the possibility that cars at least 10 years old might be in demand by junkyards for other reasons (perhaps they can be turned into scrap metal).