Critical Reasoning

8. The survival of the publishing industry depends upon the existence of a public who will buy the printed word in the form of newspapers, books and magazines. Over the past several years, however, the advance of electronic media, particularly CD-ROMs, online computer services, and the Internet, has made 9information available to the public electronically without the need for printed materials. As the availability of electronic media increases and as it is more easily accessible, the public has less need for printed materials. So the publishing industry is threatened by the advance of the computer information age.

The two portions in boldface play which of the following roles?
(A) The first is the part of evidence that the argument includes, the second is the conclusion that can be drawn only from the first.
(B) The first is the second-premise that the argument includes; the second is the conclusion that is reasonably drawn form this passage.
(C) The first is the second-premise that the argument includes, the second is the inference that must be drawn from this argument.
(D) The first is the fact that must be true, the second is the inference that can be correctly drawn from this argument.
(E) The first is the part of premise that the argument depends on; the second is the conclusion that is incorrectly drawn from this argument

Good questions.

I went with B.

First boldface to me was a second premise since its is the basis upon which the conclusion depends.
The second boldface is a conclusion since it started with "So" .

Please feel free to correct me as required.

Let us know the OA

Thanks

the last boldface is the conclusion and it is drawn from the entire information given in the passage. the conclusion isn't based on a single premise or argument as stated in A, C and D. So B for me.

Not sure if you'll find this helpful or not but to successfully decipher the given options on Bolded Statement CR, I categorize each part of the passage and each answer choice with a predetermined, specific set of symbols. Here's the symbols I like to use:

MC = Main Conclusion (the author's argument or position)

OC = Opposing Conclusion (an argument in opposition to the main conclusion)

F = Fact (basic given information, backstory, premise, etc.)

A = Stated Assumption (think of this as part of the passage that "links" given facts/evidence to stated conclusions)

E (+) MC = Evidence Supporting Main Conclusion (this is what the author cites to support his conclusion)

E (+) OC = Evidence Supporting Opposing Conclusion (this is evidence that is cited in support of the opposing conclusion; it undermines the author's conclusion and can also be expressed as E (-) MC).

Since I know each clause or sentence has to fit into one of these, it really saves me time when I'm analyzing the passages.