Critical Reasoning

Columnist: George Orwell's book 1984 has exercised much influence on a great number of this newspaper's readers. One thousand readers were surveyed and asked to name the one book that had the most influence on their lives. The book chosen most often was the Bible; 1984 was second.

The answer to which one of the following questions would most help in evaluating the columnist's argument?

A. How many books had each person surveyed read?

B. How many people chose books other than 1984?

C. How many people read the columnist's newspaper?

D. How many books by George Orwell other than 1984 were chosen?

E. How many of those surveyed had actually read the books they chose?

OA B

Can someone please explain. I picked E.

This one tripped me up too, but it just dawned on me...

The number of books other than 1984 lets us know how many people out of 1000 chose 1984!

(# that chose 1984) + (# that didn't choose 1984) = 1000

Based on that info, we can decide if the author's claim is valid. Just because 1984 came in second place, doesn't necessarily mean that it was chosen by a high number of readers. We need raw data. B gives us that raw data, in a slightly roundabout way.

Nice explanation.....I was tripped on this one, too:)

IMO BGeorge Orwell's book 1984 has exercised much influence on a great number of this newspaper's readers
BOLD PART is what we want to evaluate. Total number=1000, if we can find how many people chose books other than 1984 we can effectively find HOW MANY PEOPLE CHOSE 1984 and that is what we WANT !!!

See my reply at below link to follow the strategy for these type of ques.
https://www.beatthegmat.com/after-perfor ... 09101.html