Critical Reasoning

A convenience store manager noticed that a cooler which had been stocked with only a cola product and an iced-tea product had 15 colas left at the end of the day but only 3 iced-tea beverages. As a result, the manager reasoned that he should increase the amount of iced tea and decrease the amount of cola he ordered from the distributor.

Which of the following, if true, would most strengthen the manager's rationale for ordering more iced tea and less cola?

The cooler in question is the only place in the store where the cola and iced tea beverages are stocked.

On that day, a month-long $1,000,000 sweepstakes began, with prizes awarded via the bottlecaps on the iced tea beverage.

At the beginning of the day, the cooler was stocked with at least as many of the iced tea beverages as of the cola beverages.

On the subsequent day, the remaining three iced tea beverages all sold within the first hour after the store opened.

During that week, a special "buy one, get one free" sale was in effect for the cola beverage.


OA is C

Plss explain . I never thought bout C which is the correct answer.I had chosen B

B actually turns out to be a weakener!!

Premise: At the end of the day a cooler at a convenience store had 15 colas and only 3 iced-tea beverages remaining.
Conclusion: The manager should increase the amount of iced tea and decrease the amount of cola he ordered from the distributor.

This is a weak argument. Notice there is only one premise (fact) supporting the conclusion. The manager assumes that the iced teas are selling better than the colas. We need to find an answer that validates this assumption and therefore strengthens the manager's reasoning.


A) "The cooler in question is the only place in the store where the cola and iced tea beverages are stocked." Incorrect. This is irrelevant. We are interested in how fast each item is selling.

B) "On that day, a month-long $1,000,000 sweepstakes began, with prizes awarded via the bottlecaps on the iced tea beverage." Incorrect. This answer implies that the iced teas are selling better because of the sweepstakes but there is no evidence to prove that this is the case.

C) "At the beginning of the day, the cooler was stocked with at least as many of the iced tea beverages as of the cola beverages." Correct. If at the beginning of the day there were at least as many iced teas as colas and now there are significantly fewer, then that means the iced teas sold better than the colas. This fact supports the manager's decision to adjust his order.

D) "On the subsequent day, the remaining three iced tea beverages all sold within the first hour after the store opened." Incorrect. Again this implies that the iced teas are selling fast but it doesn't prove it. For example, they may have sold zero iced teas for a week and then just happen to sell three in one morning. Additionally, we want to know how the iced teas are selling relative to colas.

E) "During that week, a special "buy one, get one free" sale was in effect for the cola beverage." Incorrect. This doesn't strengthen the manager's conclusion that he should increase orders of iced teas and decrease orders of colas. This answer implies that the colas are selling well.

sachin_Anand wrote:A convenience store manager noticed that a cooler which had been stocked with only a cola product and an iced-tea product had 15 colas left at the end of the day but only 3 iced-tea beverages. As a result, the manager reasoned that he should increase the amount of iced tea and decrease the amount of cola he ordered from the distributor.

Which of the following, if true, would most strengthen the manager's rationale for ordering more iced tea and less cola?

The cooler in question is the only place in the store where the cola and iced tea beverages are stocked.

On that day, a month-long $1,000,000 sweepstakes began, with prizes awarded via the bottlecaps on the iced tea beverage.

At the beginning of the day, the cooler was stocked with at least as many of the iced tea beverages as of the cola beverages.

On the subsequent day, the remaining three iced tea beverages all sold within the first hour after the store opened.

During that week, a special "buy one, get one free" sale was in effect for the cola beverage.


OA is C

Plss explain . I never thought bout C which is the correct answer.I had chosen B

Basically, we need to find a way to support the manager's statement. For me, I looked at the premise that at the end of the day there were 3 ice teas and 15 colas, the manager felt he needed more iced teas and less colas. But what if there were 4 iced teas and 45 colas? If that were the case, he would be off. C is right because it states there were just as many, if not more, iced teas than colas.