PT112.S3.Q2 > Analytics

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Several companies will soon offer personalized electronic news services, delivered via cable or telephone lines and displayed on a television. ██████ █████ █████ ████████ ███ ████ ███████████ ███████ ███████ ██ █████ ██████ ███ █████ ████ ██████████ █████ █████ ████████ ████ ███████ ██████ ████ ███ ███████████ ████ ███ ███████ ███ ████ ███████ ███ ███████████ ████ ███████ ██████████ ████ █████████ █████ ████ ███████ ███████████ ██ █████ ████████ ██████ ██████ ██████████

Argument Summary

The author describes personalized news services that will allow people to follow specific news stories they subscribe to. The author claims that because these services will give people information faster and more efficiently than printed newspapers, these services will drive newspaper sales down if they become widely available.

Which one of the following, ██ █████ ████ █████████ ███████ ███ █████████

Question Type

Weaken

The key assumption in the argument is that there are people who currently buy newspapers but will stop buying newspapers and start using these services because they are more efficient at providing specific information.

We could weaken this assumption in many ways. Maybe most people don't just want information to be provided more "quickly and efficiently" on a few specific stories. Maybe they like how newspapers present them with a variety of stories they don't even know about. So maybe many people won't switch over, or will use both these services and newspapers. Or maybe there aren't many people who read newspapers to begin with, and the only ones who do are so committed that they won't switch even if these new services become widely available. If any of these things are true, it would seriously weaken the argument.

In reading newspapers, ████ ██████ ███ ████ ████ ███ ███████ ██ ████████ ██████ ███ ████ ████ ██ ████ ██████ ███████ █████████ ██ ████████ ███ ███████ ███████ ██ ██████████ ██ ███████ ███████

Correct. This is one of the possibilities we pre-phrased above. The argument assumes most people have a preference for news sources that present information more "quickly and efficiently." But if people actually enjoy the experience of flipping through a newspaper to find unexpected information, that seriously weakens the argument.

86%

Companies offering personalized ██████████ ████ ████████ ████ ██████ ███████ ██ ████ ████ ██████ ███ ██████ ██ █████ █████████ █████████ ██ ███ ████ █ █████ ██ ██████ ████ ██████

Incorrect. Even if (B) is true, people's preference for the personalized style of these news sources might still lead them to switch away from newspapers and just pay for the news services they can afford. We don't know how this range of prices compares to the price of newspapers. For all we know, the lower end would be cheaper than newspapers as well as providing more personalized information.

Approximately 30 percent ██ ██████ ████ █████ ██████ ██ ██████████ ███ ███████████ ███ ███████ ████ ██████ ██████ ██ ████ ████████ █████████ ██ ██████████ ███ ██████

Incorrect. Remember that to decide if it's true that "newspaper sales will decline drastically," we need to know about people who currently buy newspapers and may switch to these personalized news services instead. We're not interested in people who don't buy newspapers to begin with, because they don't contribute any percentage of newspaper sales.

The average monthly ████ ██ ███████████ ██ ███████ ████████ ██ █ ████████████ ██████████ ████ ███████ ████ █████████████ █████ ███ ████ ██ █ ███████ ████████████ ██ █ ██████████

Incorrect. If the author's assumption that people have a preference for news sources that provide information more quickly and efficiently is correct, then (D) just makes it more likely that people will switch from newspapers to personalized news services, by removing the possibility that the personalized news services will be prohibitively expensive. Because (D) doesn't undermine the key assumptions of this argument, it actually strengthens — not weakens — the argument.

Most people who █████████ ██ ████████████ ██████████ ████ ████████ ████ ███ ████ ██ ███ █████ █████ ███ ████████████ █████ ███ ████████ ████ ███ ███████████ █████████ ██ █████ ███ █████████ ██████████

Incorrect. Like (D), (E) does nothing to undermine the argument's key assumptions we discussed above, and actually strengthens the argument by removing the possibility that people would have to pay a prohibitively large amount to have new equipment installed.

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