hellother wrote:Please answer this " role of boldface lines " question. I will provide 2 options which confuse me .

Products with innovative and appealing designs relative to competing products often command substantially higher prices in the marketplace.BECAUSE DESIGN INNOVATIONS ARE QUICKLY COPIED BY OTHER MANUFACTURERS, many consumer technology companies charge as much as possible for their new designs to extract as much value as possible from them.But large profits generated by innovative designs give stronger incentives to copy the designs. Therefore, THE BEST STRATEGY TO MAXIMIZE OVERALL PROFIT FROM AN INNOVATIVE NEW DESIGN IS TO CHARGE LESS THAN THE GREATEST POSSIBLE PRICE.


Consider the sentences in uppercase to be the boldfaced parts.

Q: In the argument above , the 2 portions in boldface (uppercase) play which of the following roles ?

(A) The first is a consideration that helps explain the appeal of a certain strategy;the second presents an alternative strategy endorsed by the argument.
(B) The first is a phenomenon that justifies a specific strategy ; the second is that strategy.

Now , both these options seem right to me. The (B) option is clear. Option (A) also seems right too,because the first boldface statement gives a reason(design innovations quickly copied) or explains the appeal of a particular strategy ( which is to "charge as much as possible") . The second boldfaced statement is an alternative strategy ( charging less) .


So which one is right ? Please tell me how to identify the correct answer.Any method to find out?

hellother wrote:The answer given in my book is option (B) . It(My book) says that the "specific strategy in option (B)" is BF2.If you read the boldface sentences alone(without reading the other sentences) , then it is clear that BF 1 actually supports BF2.
It says that the boldface 1 justifies the strategy mentioned in boldface 2.
However , as you say, option (A) also seems to be right.

So any other answer