Critical Reasoning

In January 1992, the Sylvanic Exterminator Service of Salem County began a new service concentrating on the removal of bats, rats, and mice. Revenue increased twofold by the end of the year. However, since 1991 more people in Salem County have been taking care of their extermination problems on their own, and the extermination industry's revenues have been dropping because of it. Sylvanic Exterminator Service has reported no such loss in revenue.

Which one of the following statements, if true, would best explain the above paradox?
(A) The Sylvanic Exterminator Service was audited in 1992 and has had to be extremely careful with its bookkeeping ever since.
(B) In 1990, Sylvanic upgraded all of its poison sprayers, incurring a debt which will not be paid off until 1998.
(C) People would rather take care of the pest problems themselves because it is less expensive.
(D) The bat, rat, and mouse populations of Salem County have increased significantly since 1991.
(E) The Sylvanic Exterminator Service's new pest service has compensated for the losses it has been experiencing in the rest of its services.

[spoiler]OA: E
Could somebody explain why D is wrong?
[/spoiler]

andrey_tsi wrote:In January 1992, the Sylvanic Exterminator Service of Salem County began a new service concentrating on the removal of bats, rats, and mice. Revenue increased twofold by the end of the year. However, since 1991 more people in Salem County have been taking care of their extermination problems on their own, and the extermination industry's revenues have been dropping because of it. Sylvanic Exterminator Service has reported no such loss in revenue.

Which one of the following statements, if true, would best explain the above paradox?
(A) The Sylvanic Exterminator Service was audited in 1992 and has had to be extremely careful with its bookkeeping ever since.
(B) In 1990, Sylvanic upgraded all of its poison sprayers, incurring a debt which will not be paid off until 1998.
(C) People would rather take care of the pest problems themselves because it is less expensive.
(D) The bat, rat, and mouse populations of Salem County have increased significantly since 1991.
(E) The Sylvanic Exterminator Service's new pest service has compensated for the losses it has been experiencing in the rest of its services.

[spoiler]OA: E
Could somebody explain why D is wrong?
[/spoiler]

hey,

The question asks for a paradox,the paradox is that people started taking care of extermination on their own so the revenue of other extermination agencies decreased, inspite of that Sylvanic service wasnt affected,
option D explains that it provided Sylvanic services with an opportunity to utilize its new service in that area since they are probably the only ones providing that service, although this is connected with the solution but remember this is not the solution the solution to the question asked is "PARADOX in REVENUES" and D doesnt explain that,

but E properly explains this paradox, hence E is the right choice no doubt.

hope it clears.

This is 'Resolve the paradox' question. So it has 2 facts:

1: Since people are taking care of pests themselves, extermination industry revenues are dropping.
2: Sylvanic Exterminator Service reported no such loss in revenue.

Answer choice must explain the reason for fact2 (I learned this from David@Veritas).

E explains the reason for fact2.

D this doesn't explain conclusively why Sylvanic Exterminator Service is not reporting loss of revenue.

D) The bat, rat, and mouse populations of Salem County have increased significantly since 1991.
E) The Sylvanic Exterminator Service's new pest service has compensated for the losses it has been experiencing in the rest of its services.

In E, does "pest" not include "bats, rats, and mice"? If people are already taking care of them (bats, rats, and mice) then how could Sylvanic's new pest service be compensating for losses in the rest of its services.

D, on the other hand, seems to say that bats, rats, and mice has increased to such an extent that people's efforts are not enough and might require the help of extermination services.

Experts please comment.

TheGraduate wrote:D) The bat, rat, and mouse populations of Salem County have increased significantly since 1991.
E) The Sylvanic Exterminator Service's new pest service has compensated for the losses it has been experiencing in the rest of its services.

In E, does "pest" not include "bats, rats, and mice"? If people are already taking care of them (bats, rats, and mice) then how could Sylvanic's new pest service be compensating for losses in the rest of its services.

D, on the other hand, seems to say that bats, rats, and mice has increased to such an extent that people's efforts are not enough and might require the help of extermination services.

Experts please comment.

It sounds like the issue is how to interpret the following line from the prompt: However, since 1991 more people in Salem County have been taking care of their extermination problems on their own

When we're told that more people are dealing with pest issues on their own, we don't know what kind of pest issues. It's possible that when people have, say, wasps, they deal with it on their own, but when they have mice issues, they enlist the services of this company. (And if the bat/rat/mice division is new, the fact that fewer people are hiring exterminators can't hurt revenues for a company that didn't previously perform this service!) The important thing to note is that E makes it very explicit that the company has compensated for its losses in one area by introducing revenues from a new area. That certainly explains why the company isn't losing money overall.

D requires too many assumptions to be a good answer. Just because the pest population is rising doesn't mean that this particular company isn't losing revenue. It's possible that the company has increased revenues from dealing with bat, rat, and mouse populations, but that these revenues don't cover the losses the business has incurred from drops in demand to deal with other pests. We don't know. In other words, what E makes explicit, D does not.