Critical Reasoning

I was confused b/w B and D
but neither of them is the correct answer

for the benefit of others, here is the question:

Community activist: If Morganville wants to keep its central shopping district healthy, it should prevent the opening of a huge SaveAll discount department store on the outskirts of Morganville. Records from other small towns show that whenever SaveAll has opened a store outside the central shopping district of a small town, within five years the town has experienced the bankruptcies of more than a quarter of the stores in the shopping district.

The answer to which of the following would be most useful for evaluating the community activist's reasoning?

A. Have community activists in other towns successfully campaigned against the opening of a SaveAll store on the outskirts of their towns?
B. Do a large percentage of the residents of Morganville currently do almost all of their shopping at stores in Morganville?
C. In towns with healthy central shopping districts, what proportion of the stores in those districts suffer bankruptcy during a typical five-year period?
D. What proportion of the employees at the SaveAll store on the outskirts of Morganville will be drawn form Morganville?
E. Do newly opened SaveAll stores ever lose money during their first five years of operation?

the best approach for evaluate the argument type of questions is to provide polar opposite to the question and see if that affects the conclusion. i will show you how to use this technique in this question.

First lets describe the conclusion- If Morganville wants to keep its central shopping district healthy, it should prevent the opening of a huge SaveAll discount department store on the outskirts of Morganville

A. Have community activists in other towns successfully campaigned against the opening of a SaveAll store on the outskirts of their towns? [ lets plug in opposite values. Lets say all community activists have campaigned against save all. does this provide support to say that Morganville should prevent the opening of saveall? lets plug in the opposite- No. No community activist has campaigned successfully. does it prevent the opening of saveall? is our decision based on how many community activists have campaigned? Eliminated!]

B. Do a large percentage of the residents of Morganville currently do almost all of their shopping at stores in Morganville? [First value- Yes. A large percentage of residents shop at stores in morganville. then why shouldnt Save all be opened outskirts? a caveat here: dont assume that this store will drwa in shoppers from the local stores. we do not have this information. it can also be that shoppers are very loyal and dont want to experiment wrt goods. so dont make this assumption. Second value- NO. a large percentage of ppl dont shop at local stores. so how does this affect the saving of saveall? as such shoppers dont shop there, so what difference will it bring if saveall opens or not. Eliminated!]

C. In towns with healthy central shopping districts, what proportion of the stores in those districts suffer bankruptcy during a typical five-year period? [here is the key.the passage talks about just generalized towns. these towns could have ailing shopping districts that crumbled on the onset of saveall. here in this option, we are giving proper comparison. both the towns in comparison have healthy districts. so we can look for a pattern that appears in these towns and predict that this pattern mite hold good in our point of case too. Correct!]

D. What proportion of the employees at the SaveAll store on the outskirts of Morganville will be drawn form Morganville? [ say a large proportion of employees will be drawn. again we make an aaumption that the employees drawn cannot be replenished. what if those stores recruit more workers to work for them? then how does their business get affected by the opening of saveall? lets plug in the opposite. a small proportion of employees are drwan. then how does it affect the conclusion? why should saveall store not be opened at the outskirts of Morganville? Eliminated!]

E. Do newly opened SaveAll stores ever lose money during their first five years of operation?[ are we even bothered about how much money saveall loses? it wouls seem stupid to even plug in values for this junk answer. straightaway eliminated!]

Hope this helps!

I am kinda getting what u r saying fibbonnaci...
BAsically , for each answer option trying proving it as "yes" and "no" .If either of these two options is hurting my conclusion then that would be the correct answer option.

But while u r assuming a "yes " or "no " , one shouldnt further assume things. THere shouldnt be a sub-assumption !

Like how i did in B and D .

Correct me if i got ur technique wrong. I am doing terrible in CR and need tricks and techniques to raise my GMAT score

Thanks for the explanation

P.s.: it did help!

P.s. again.: i'm kinda unsure of the two things ive highlighted in bold above. Please clear my doubt.

Regards,
Bhumika

fibbonnaci wrote:the best approach for evaluate the argument type of questions is to provide polar opposite to the question and see if that affects the conclusion. i will show you how to use this technique in this question.

First lets describe the conclusion- If Morganville wants to keep its central shopping district healthy, it should prevent the opening of a huge SaveAll discount department store on the outskirts of Morganville

A. Have community activists in other towns successfully campaigned against the opening of a SaveAll store on the outskirts of their towns? [ lets plug in opposite values. Lets say all community activists have campaigned against save all. does this provide support to say that Morganville should prevent the opening of saveall? lets plug in the opposite- No. No community activist has campaigned successfully. does it prevent the opening of saveall? is our decision based on how many community activists have campaigned? Eliminated!]

B. Do a large percentage of the residents of Morganville currently do almost all of their shopping at stores in Morganville? [First value- Yes. A large percentage of residents shop at stores in morganville. then why shouldnt Save all be opened outskirts? a caveat here: dont assume that this store will drwa in shoppers from the local stores. we do not have this information. it can also be that shoppers are very loyal and dont want to experiment wrt goods. so dont make this assumption. Second value- NO. a large percentage of ppl dont shop at local stores. so how does this affect the saving of saveall? as such shoppers dont shop there, so what difference will it bring if saveall opens or not. Eliminated!]

C. In towns with healthy central shopping districts, what proportion of the stores in those districts suffer bankruptcy during a typical five-year period? [here is the key.the passage talks about just generalized towns. these towns could have ailing shopping districts that crumbled on the onset of saveall. here in this option, we are giving proper comparison. both the towns in comparison have healthy districts. so we can look for a pattern that appears in these towns and predict that this pattern mite hold good in our point of case too. Correct!]

D. What proportion of the employees at the SaveAll store on the outskirts of Morganville will be drawn form Morganville? [ say a large proportion of employees will be drawn. again we make an aaumption that the employees drawn cannot be replenished. what if those stores recruit more workers to work for them? then how does their business get affected by the opening of saveall? lets plug in the opposite. a small proportion of employees are drwan. then how does it affect the conclusion? why should saveall store not be opened at the outskirts of Morganville? Eliminated!]

E. Do newly opened SaveAll stores ever lose money during their first five years of operation?[ are we even bothered about how much money saveall loses? it wouls seem stupid to even plug in values for this junk answer. straightaway eliminated!]

Hope this helps!

just plug in opposite values to the argument and see if this affects the conclusion [ remember 'affect' does not necessarily mean 'hurt'. ]

You are not trying to prove anything as 'yes' and 'no'. all that you are doing is giving an answer to the question. evaluate the argument answer choices are usually questions, the answers to which should help the author take a call on the argument. you just give in opposite answers to see if it affects.