PT18.S4.Q7

PrepTest 18 - Section 4 - Question 7

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Advertisement: Support Over 80 percent of the people who test-drive a Zenith car end up buying one. ██ ██ ███████ ███ ██████ ███ ██████████ █ ██████ ██████ ███ ███ ████████ ██ ███ ████ ███████ ██ ███ ██ ████ ██ █████ █ ██████ ██████ ███ ██████ █████ ██ █ ██████ ████ ██ ███████ ██████ ███ ████ ██████ ██ ███ ███

Argument Summary

The advertisement points out that over 80 percent of people who test-drive a Zenith car end up buying one. From this statistic, the advertisement claims that if you "so much as drive a Zenith around the block", you are more than 80% likely to buy it. The conclusion is that "you should not test-drive a Zenith unless you are prepared to buy one."

Analysis: Weaken

The question stem asks us to interpret this advertisement as implying that the Zenith car's quality is "unusually impressive." In other words, we assume the advertisement is suggesting that the reason over 80% of people who test-drive a Zenith end up buying one is because the quality of the car is so good, and that quality is apparent from a test drive even just around the block. A good way to counter this argument would be to suggest another reason why so many people who test-drive a Zenith end up buying it — maybe because Zenith cars are unusually affordable, or because most people who test-drive these cars have decided ahead of time to buy them anyway for some other reason.

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7.

If the advertisement is interpreted ██ ████████ ████ ███ ███████ ██ ███ ███ ██ █████████ ███████████ █████ ███ ██ ███ ██████████ ██ █████ ████ ███████ █████ █████ ██ ████ ████████████

a

Test-drives of Zenith ████ ████ █████████ ██ ██████ █████ ██████████ █████████ ████ █████████ ████ █ █████ ██████ ███ █████ ███ █████████ ██████ ███████ ███████████

Incorrect. (A) would undermine the advertisement's claim that if you even drive a Zenith "around the block," you are over 80% likely to buy it. But (A) doesn't undermine the idea that the reason people buy Zenith cars after test-driving them is that Zenith cars are of exceptionally good quality.
0%
b

Usually dealers have ██████ ██████ ██████ ██ █████ ████ ███████████ ██████████ ███ ████ ██ ██████████ ███ █████ █████ ████ ████ ███ ███████████ ███ █████████

Incorrect. Just because people are able to test-drive the "exact model" they are considering for purchase doesn't mean they are committed to purchasing that model. The reason so many people end up buying the model they test-drive might still be that Zenith cars are of exceptionally good quality. So (B) doesn't weaken.
1%
c

Those who take ███████████ ██ ████ ████ ██ ████████████ ████████████ ██████ ███ ████ ███████ ███████ ██ ███ ███ █████ ██████ ██████ ████ █████ ██████ ██████ ████████

Correct. (C) tells us that most people who test-drive cars have already decided to purchase those cars unless they find some obvious problem with it. In other words, (C) strongly undermines the idea that the reason so many people buy Zenith cars is because they are impressed by the exceptional quality of the cars during the test drive.
95%
d

Almost 90 percent ██ ███ ██████ ███ ████████ █ ███ ██ ███ ██ ██ ██ ███ ███ ████ ████ █ █████ ██████████ ███ ██ ██ █████ ███████ ███████████

Incorrect. This is talking about people purchasing cars in general, not about people specifically test-driving and purchasing Zenith cars. And even if most people who purchase Zenith cars do so only after two test-drives, the reason they do so might still be the exceptional quality of Zenith cars.
2%
e

In some Zenith █████ █ █████ ████ ███ ██████ ██████ ███ █████ █████ ███ ██████ ███████ ████ ██████ ███████ ██ ██████ ████ ███ ███████ ████ ███████ ███ ████ ████ █ ██████████ ███ ██ ██ ████ ██ ███████

Incorrect. We don't know how many cars this happens to. (E) doesn't undermine the idea that the reason people buy Zenith cars after test-driving them is that they are of exceptionally good quality.
2%

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