SeemaSkl wrote:Singing in the Rain Umbrella Corp. plans to institute a marketing campaign in
which it sells umbrellas at the exits of subway stations during rainy weather. The
umbrellas will be sold at a price that is slightly higher than normal. The company
thinks the sales of these higher - priced umbrellas will be greater than normal
sales of umbrellas, because the purchasers of these umbrellas will be forced to
buy them if they do not want to get wet.

The author assumes which of the following about the purchasers of the umbrellas
in predicting the sales of the umbrellas?

A. Customers who do not feel immediate pressure to purchase will
not do so.
B. Normally priced umbrellas are not profitable for singing in the
Rain Umbrellas Corp.
C. Very few people buy Singing in the Rain's normally priced
umbrellas.
D. Singing in the Rain Umbrellas Corp. will have to stop selling
normally priced umbrellas when it starts selling higher priced
umbrellas.
E. Most potential customers of Singing in the Rain's higher priced
umbrellas will not have acquired an umbrella previously.

Premise :purchasers of these umbrellas will be forced to
buy them if they do not want to get wet
Conclusion : priced umbrellas will be greater than normal
sales of umbrellas

E clearly fits here

Thanks. Any comments on choice A? Looks like if you do 'negate' it, it makes a perfect assumption - if it's raining and you don't have an umbrella, you feel the pressure to make the purchase.

SeemaSkl wrote:Thanks. Any comments on choice A? Looks like if you do 'negate' it, it makes a perfect assumption - if it's raining and you don't have an umbrella, you feel the pressure to make the purchase.

i think the things about whether the customers feel pressure or not is irrelevant to the plans of the company because
first of all i think maybe the company want to sell it as many raincoat as possible with high price in station, and it does sound like a monopoly( in the rain only my company sells you, all kinds of customers raincoat and you have to buy it if you dont want to get wet and only i sell it, thus you must buy however you feel)
second if A is rellevant to the passage it could not be the assumption because the last statement in the argument mentioned it ( the purchasers of these umbrellas will be forced to
buy them if they do not want to get wet.)
thus A cant be the answer,
i think the Answer is E. if you negate E, it will weakend the conclusion or the plan will be flaw. even if the company has the monopoly to sell umbrella but the customers know that it will be rain and they buy all the imbrella they need thus they wont have to buy higher price umbrella anymore thus the plan of the sings...blah blah company will be unsuccessful
does it help anything?

IMO D

I was confused between D and E.
what is the OA ?

Argument is saying that : company will increase it sale by high-priced umbrella than normal-priced umbrella.

D says : the company has to stop selling the normal priced umbrella.

If D is not true than obviously the customers will purchase the normal price umbrella and the sale will not increase.

Can somebody explain what is IMO and OA ? I am new here..

I would go with E too. However, the correct answer is A, second best is E..

SeemaSkl wrote:I would go with E too. However, the correct answer is A, second best is E..

lol...
anyways, can you post its explanation? couldnt undestand why A, for me, A is also correct but its not as good as E

I was debating between A and E.

Though I have selected E, I am not convinced with it because E is very vague. E says 'Most potential customers of Singing in the Rain's higher priced umbrellas will not have acquired an umbrella previously'. It is open to debate. Let's say I am potential customer of Singing and I have an umbrella, which I purchased in Summer. (How stupid I am!!!!). I didn't bring that umbrella with me and it is raining outside, in that case I have to buy one from Singing, so E can not be the correct answer. 'Previously' is creating problem here.

I am not convinced with A either. If we negate A then it will be like 'Customers who do feel immediate pressure to purchase will purchase.' However, conclusion says the same thing and negation is not helping here.

Hope this helps....btw what is the source of this question?

SeemaSkl wrote:Singing in the Rain Umbrella Corp. plans to institute a marketing campaign in
which it sells umbrellas at the exits of subway stations during rainy weather. The
umbrellas will be sold at a price that is slightly higher than normal. The company
thinks the sales of these higher - priced umbrellas will be greater than normal
sales of umbrellas, because the purchasers of these umbrellas will be forced to
buy them if they do not want to get wet.

The author assumes which of the following about the purchasers of the umbrellas
in predicting the sales of the umbrellas?

A. Customers who do not feel immediate pressure to purchase will
not do so.
B. Normally priced umbrellas are not profitable for singing in the
Rain Umbrellas Corp.
C. Very few people buy Singing in the Rain's normally priced
umbrellas.
D. Singing in the Rain Umbrellas Corp. will have to stop selling
normally priced umbrellas when it starts selling higher priced
umbrellas.
E. Most potential customers of Singing in the Rain's higher priced
umbrellas will not have acquired an umbrella previously.

SeemaSkl wrote:Can somebody explain what is IMO and OA ? I am new here..

OA = official answer
IMO = your answer [ sorry, don't know the full form ]

IMO = In My Opinion

paes wrote:

SeemaSkl wrote:Can somebody explain what is IMO and OA ? I am new here..

OA = official answer
IMO = your answer [ sorry, don't know the full form ]

Thanks for the explanation guys. I downloaded free from some website i don't remember which one. Maybe you can google it, just type in the argument.

Now according to that source here is the explanation as to why A is the best answer :

"(A) ID the question: Assume is an obvious key word. Work the argument: C: Sales of
umbrellas at subway exits while it's raining will be greater than normal sales. P: People
will be forced to buy umbrellas if they don't want to get wet. A: They don't have
umbrellas with them. They are unwilling to get wet. POE: In (B), profitability of normally
priced umbrellas is irrelevant. In (C), sales of normally priced umbrellas are irrelevant.
(D) doesn't deal with the issue. (E) looks good, but it's not right. Potential customers
might have umbrellas, but the issue is whether they have an umbrella with them. (A)
makes the link. If it's raining and you don't have an umbrella, you feel the pressure to
make a purchase. On some assumption questions, you may have a lot of difficulty
spotting the necessary assumption due to the way the answers are worded. This is
particularly true with answer choices containing negative words such as not and never.
One way to check whether an answer choice is a necessary assumption is to negate, or
reverse, that answer. If the negation would weaken the argument, that answer is a
necessary assumption."

Go figure . It's using negation tactic in some weird roundabout way like almost forcing it on choice A. In my opinion it's not worth wasting the time, it ought to be simple right??