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CR assumption

by sachin_yadav » Fri Oct 28, 2011 1:43 am
Which of the following best completes the passage below?

The computer industry's estimate that it loses millions of dollars when users illegally copy programs without paying for them is greatly exaggerated. Most of the illegal copying is done by people with no serious interest in the programs. Thus, the loss to the industry is quite small, because _________.


(A) many users who illegally copy programs never find any use for them
(B) most people who illegally copy programs would not purchase them even if purchasing them were the only way to obtain them
(C) even if the computer industry received all the revenue it claims to be losing, it would still be experiencing financial difficulties
(D) the total market value of all illegal copies is low in comparison to the total revenue of the computer industry
(E) the number of programs that are frequently copied illegally is low in comparison to the number of programs available for sale

Answer is B

What is wrong with E.

Got some explanations but not convinced. Can anyone tell the difference between B and E ?

Thanks & Regards
Sachin
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by mir.yahya » Fri Oct 28, 2011 3:48 am
I think its fairly simple because of the link between the premise and conclusion. It is argued that people who illegally copy have no interest in the programs, so, actually computer industry will not gain anything if illegal copying is stopped. Option B is therefore, most appropriate.

Option E, on the other hand, talks about something which is out of the scope of the question. We don't have to compare frequency of illegal copies with the frequency of legal copies.

I hope it makes sense.
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by saketk » Fri Oct 28, 2011 5:36 am
sachin_yadav wrote:Which of the following best completes the passage below?

The computer industry's estimate that it loses millions of dollars when users illegally copy programs without paying for them is greatly exaggerated. Most of the illegal copying is done by people with no serious interest in the programs. Thus, the loss to the industry is quite small, because _________.


(A) many users who illegally copy programs never find any use for them
(B) most people who illegally copy programs would not purchase them even if purchasing them were the only way to obtain them
(C) even if the computer industry received all the revenue it claims to be losing, it would still be experiencing financial difficulties
(D) the total market value of all illegal copies is low in comparison to the total revenue of the computer industry
(E) the number of programs that are frequently copied illegally is low in comparison to the number of programs available for sale

Answer is B

What is wrong with E.

Got some explanations but not convinced. Can anyone tell the difference between B and E ?

Thanks & Regards
Sachin
this is a assumption based question. The computer industry is assuming that it is losing millions of dollar when users copy the programs illegally. But, the author is providing an alternate reason to weaken the argument made by the industry analyst. To support his reasoning, author should provide some evidence that will weaken the assumption. Only option B is serving the purpose. the information B is providing says that people will not buy these programs even if that's the only way. This means that the computer industry will still be losing the same amount of money.

Option E, on the other hand is not doing anything to weaken the argument. We can use Math to understand this statement.

The keyword is 'as compared to' -- A million would look smaller when compared with 10 billion. Right? Still the PC industry will be losing millions in the sales. This way the assumption will still stand true.

hth
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by Brent@GMATPrepNow » Fri Oct 28, 2011 6:27 am
There are 3 things that make B the better answer.

First, the conclusion is about lost money, not the number of times people copy. B directly addresses the money aspect, while E does not. Sure, E might indirectly address money, but with E there's still an implied assumption that this fact affects lost revenue.

Second, "most" (aka more than 50%) provides more information that "low in comparison" (aka less than). So, it could be the case that the number of illegal copies = 999,999 and the number available for sale = 1,000,000.

Thirds, keep in mind that "programs available for sale" is different from "programs sold." It could be the case that zero programs were sold while tons were copied.

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by GMATGuruNY » Fri Oct 28, 2011 6:37 am
sachin_yadav wrote:Which of the following best completes the passage below?

The computer industry's estimate that it loses millions of dollars when users illegally copy programs without paying for them is greatly exaggerated. Most of the illegal copying is done by people with no serious interest in the programs. Thus, the loss to the industry is quite small, because _________.


(A) many users who illegally copy programs never find any use for them
(B) most people who illegally copy programs would not purchase them even if purchasing them were the only way to obtain them
(C) even if the computer industry received all the revenue it claims to be losing, it would still be experiencing financial difficulties
(D) the total market value of all illegal copies is low in comparison to the total revenue of the computer industry
(E) the number of programs that are frequently copied illegally is low in comparison to the number of programs available for sale

Answer is B

What is wrong with E.

Got some explanations but not convinced. Can anyone tell the difference between B and E ?

Thanks & Regards
Sachin
I received a PM asking me to comment.

The passage is trying to BREAK THE LINK between ILLEGAL COPYING and LOSING SALES.
The correct answer will show that ILLEGAL COPYING is not connected to LOSING SALES.

(A) many users who illegally copy programs never find any use for them. Out of scope. This answer choice shows that copying is not connected to USE. The argument is not about USE. Eliminate A.

(B) most people who illegally copy programs would not purchase them even if purchasing them were the only way to obtain them. Correct. This answer choice shows that ILLEGAL COPYING is not connected to PURCHASES.

(C) even if the computer industry received all the revenue it claims to be losing, it would still be experiencing financial difficulties. Out of scope. The passage is not about all types of FINANCIAL DIFFICULTIES; it is ONLY about losing SALES. Eliminate C.

(D) the total market value of all illegal copies is low in comparison to the total revenue of the computer industry. Out of scope. The argument is not about the entire computer industry. This answer choice does not break the link between COPYING and SALES. Eliminate D.

E) the number of programs that are frequently copied illegally is low in comparison to the number of programs available for sale. This answer choice changes the scope. The premise is about ALL computer programs that are copied illegally -- not just about those that are FREQUENTLY copied illegally. The conclusion is about the number of programs SOLD -- not just about the number of programs AVAILABLE for sale. Eliminate E.

The correct answer is B.
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by sachin_yadav » Sat Oct 29, 2011 9:52 am
Mitch, Brent, mir.yahya, and saketk thanks for your reply.

Got it. I did not recognize that there are so many problems in E.

Brent can you please explain the below one. I did not understand it clearly.
Second, "most" (aka more than 50%) provides more information that "low in comparison" (aka less than). So, it could be the case that the number of illegal copies = 999,999 and the number available for sale = 1,000,000.
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by lunarpower » Sun Oct 30, 2011 11:06 pm
i received a private message about this thread.
i don't normally weigh in on threads to switch other experts have already responded, but here's a compact analysis of this one.

the prompt here is fairly precise: "Thus, the loss to the industry is quite small, because _________"

* the only way to interpret "the loss to the industry" is in terms of money, so that's what we need to think about.

* notice that the illegal copying is definitely going on, so there is no chance of responding to the argument with something that denies that the copying is occurring in the first place.

* if the copying is definitely happening, then we need some other reason why the monetary losses may be smaller than the company thinks.

let's say that the market value of the illegally copied programs is N dollars. if the programs are copied illegally, the company is receiving $0, so the company is projecting a loss of N dollars.
in choice (a), the loss is still presumably N dollars.
choice (c) is altogether irrelevant.
in choice (d), the loss is still presumably N dollars. (we don't care if N is small compared to total revenues.)
in choice (e), the loss is still presumably N dollars. (we don't care about N relative to whatever total value.)

by contrast, in choice (b), the loss is now ... much smaller than N dollars, because, if they hadn't been able to pirate the programs, most of these users simply wouldn't have bothered with the programs at all.
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by sachin_yadav » Mon Oct 31, 2011 9:14 am
Hi Ron,

Thank you so much for your reply. Awesome explanation.
lunarpower wrote:
by contrast, in choice (b), the loss is now ... much smaller than N dollars, because, if they hadn't been able to pirate the programs, most of these users simply wouldn't have bothered with the programs at all.
For (B), correct me if i am wrong. My understanding says that they won't be bothered with the programs at all because they have no interest in programs [Given in the stimulus].

What if they had interest in programs, then the story would have been quite different that is loss to the company.

Thanks & Regards
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by sachin_yadav » Mon Oct 31, 2011 11:06 am
All of you guys Rock....Thanks...

Sachin
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