Literary critics are concerned by a recent trend in book publishing. The sales of genre books—-lowbrow fare, such as romance novels, that critics contend have little literary value—-have increased dramatically over the last five years. In fact, an analysis of the books stocked in bookstores shows that the ratio of titles in the classic literature category-—which includes books with high literary value by such authors as Dickens, Dostoyevsky, and Faulkner-—to titles in the genre category has decreased over the same period. In addition, average sales per title in the genre category have increased greatly over the last five years. Critics fear that if current trends continue, genre books will dominate the market for fiction books, signaling a lamentable decrease in the quality of literature to which the average reader is exposed.

Which of the following pieces of information would be most useful in evaluating the validity of the critics claim about genre books potential domination of the market for fiction books?

A. the likelihood that current trends in the sales of books in the genre and classic literature categories continue

B. the amounts of sales, in dollars, for books in the genre and classic literature categories over the last five years

C. a comparison of sales revenues for nonfiction books and genre books over the last five years

D. sales revenues over the last five years both for genre books and for fiction books other than those in the genre or classic literature categories

E. a numerical estimate of the literary value contained in each of several representative titles of the genre book category

Good Day Guru
i read you explanation at this link: https://www.beatthegmat.com/confusing-oa-t274922.html

i somehow have a different view about this question

you have said that:

The conclusion makes a prediction about the entire BOOK MARKET: that it will be dominated by genre books.

in the question stem we are asked: evaluate the validity of the critics claim about genre books potential domination of the market for fiction books

this means that we NEED to concentrate ONLY on the market of "FICTION BOOKS" and NOT on COMPLETE BOOK market. we have to evaluate the dominance of the so called "genre" books in the market of "fiction" books

please NOTE that i also fail to understand as why this CR has used the word "genre books"? the literal meaning of "genre" is "sorts", or "kinds", of any art( be it writing/painting etc). i mean we can say that there are various genres of literature such as "lowbrow", fiction, nonfiction, little literary value etc. BUT we CANNOT say: "Critics fear that if current trends continue, genre books will dominate the market for fiction books, signaling a lamentable decrease in the quality of literature to which the average reader is exposed. -----> the moment i read this i asked myself as "genre books" of what type? , people can argue that as per passage we can conclude "genre books" as being "romantic novels" BUT don't you think that in doing so we are flouting some very basic literal meaning?