Critical Reasoning

A greater number of newspapers are sold in Town S than in Town T. Therefore, the citizens of Town S are better informed about major world events than are the citizens of Town T.

Each of the following, if true, weakens the conclusion above EXCEPT:

(A) Town S has a larger population than Town T.
(B) Most citizens of Town T work in Town S and buy their newspapers there.
(C) The average citizen of Town S spends less time reading newspapers than does the average citizen of Town T.
(D) A weekly newspaper restricted to the coverage of local events is published in Town S.
(E) The average newsstand price of newspapers sold in Town S is lower than the average price of newspapers sold in Town T.

IMO E.

A - If town S has a larger population than town T, this is a good reason why it sells more newspapers, not because people in town S buy more newspapers per capita., hence they might not be more informed, hence weakens the argument

B - Also an explanation why town S might sell more, but town T might be better informed.

C - so basically the average citizen of town T is better informed than the average citizen of town S, weakens the argument.

D - also another reason why town S might sell more newspapers, however the additional newspapers weaken the argument coz they are only for local news.

E - Correct (IMO). It gives a reason why town S sells more newspapers than town T, however you can't link it (the reason) with population, newspaper quality or with how much the average citizen of town X likes to read. This answer explains why S sells more (as several other answers) but doesn't weaken the argument.

imo:c


A)larger population may lead to more selling- weakens

B)most citizens of T buy newspapers in S- weakens

D)A local news paper is more in selling - weakens

E)more selling due to lower average price and that might be the reason.
It is quite possible that people buy more newspapers due to lower price and still be less informed- weakens

C)If people of S spend less time that doesnt mean they are less informed.
What if the average reading speed of the people of S is more than those of T
IMO: C doesnt weaken.

anyone???

is it from 1000 series then i think we shouldnt be wasting time on this..

thanks.

Yup I would go with raunekk . Its C

And more ever . E is weakening - less price could be driving factor for
Town T ppl to buy their news paper in Town s.
No doubt tis answer is second best when it comes to game of guess

I don't know guys, I still see C as:

Let's say x is the number of people in town S and y is the number of people in town T.

((number of newspapers sold in S)/x)*100 = k1
((number of newspapers sold in T)/y)*100 = k2

k is basically the percentage of people that buy newspapers in each town.
if k1 > k2 then town S is better informed than town T (assuming they buy the same kind of newspapers and assuming they read the same quantity from the bought newspapers) and vice versa.

We are not given the exact numbers nor are we told that k2 is bigger but we are basically told that k2 has an edge over k1 since k2 reads more.

Let's put some numbers for better understanding. Equal numbers are most fair.

100/50 = 50% for town S
100/40 = 40% for town T

But in C we are told that town T reads more. So...
If town S reads 40% of the newspapers and town T reads 60% of the newspapers, town T should be more informed IMO.

C weakens.

E, however, kinda weakens only if you go into complex economic formulas, and GMAT should not assume you are familiar with the field.

In general you don't have to change anything from the formula.

((number and quality of newspapers sold in S) / (number of people in TOWN)) * 100 = k1

If you change anything you either weaken or better support the argument. In the given answer choices we have:

A and D change the formula and weaken the argument.
B and C weaken the argument logically.
E weakens the argument only if you are familiar with the additional field of economics which GMAT should not presume. I could not think of a formula that would use prices in the given example.

The question itself might not be from GMAT quality but I think we should still go with E.

Any thoughts? and OA pls.

I think the answer has to be 'B'. Because the conclusion here is about more knowledge & not about sales or readership. If town 'T' people get to read the town 'S' newspapers, they are definitely at par if not more tahn town'S' people.

OA = E.

FYI....this is an OG question

Zipper 1 - Gmat 0

P.s. more like Zipper 427 - GMAT 1288

The OA is given a 'E' in OG but there is no explanation of 'Y'. It simply says that this statement identifies a statement that does NOT weaken the conclusion. Can anyone explain???

Read my large post and try to fully understand it.

You can link everything given in the answers with the quality or quantity of information that people will get. Except prices.

In my opinion E is the most logical one.

Sorry that i am still confused with option E because it says that the price is the reason for the greater sale of the newspaper in town S, So the argument is asking us to strengthen so out of the total 5 the 4 options are weakening but i feel the answer E is also weakening by saying that the newspaper sales are greater. For strengthening question an option that says the conclusion to be strong is right, therefore the other options also do the same. How is E different?? Kindly help. Thank you