Bookstore CR

This topic has expert replies
Legendary Member
Posts: 1169
Joined: Sun Jul 06, 2008 2:34 am
Thanked: 25 times
Followed by:1 members

Bookstore CR

by aj5105 » Mon May 11, 2009 2:04 am
The only way that bookstores can profitably sell books at below-market prices is to get the books at a discount from publishers. Unless bookstores generate a high sales volume, however, they cannot get discounts from publishers. To generate such volume, bookstores must either cater to mass tastes or have exclusive access to a large specialized market, such as medical market, or both.
Which one of the following can be properly inferred from the passage?

(A) If a bookstore receives discounts from publishers, it will profitably sell books at below-market prices.

(B) A bookstore that caters to mass tastes or has exclusive access to a large specialized market will have a high sales volume.

(C) A bookstore that profitably sells books at below-market prices gets discounts from publishers.

(D) A bookstore that does not sell books at below-market prices does not get discounts from publishers.

(E) A bookstore that not only caters to mass tastes but also has exclusive access to a large specialized market cannot profitably sell books at below-market prices.
Source: — Critical Reasoning |

Legendary Member
Posts: 876
Joined: Thu Apr 10, 2008 8:14 am
Thanked: 13 times

by ketkoag » Mon May 11, 2009 2:53 am
narrowed down to B and D.. IMO : D

Legendary Member
Posts: 1161
Joined: Mon May 12, 2008 2:52 am
Location: Sydney
Thanked: 23 times
Followed by:1 members

by mehravikas » Mon May 11, 2009 7:30 pm
IMO - C

Legendary Member
Posts: 1035
Joined: Wed Aug 27, 2008 10:56 pm
Thanked: 104 times
Followed by:1 members

by scoobydooby » Mon May 11, 2009 8:22 pm
would go with A

A. correct. restatement of the first line: discount=>profitable sales

B. to generate high sales volume, bookstores must cater to mass tastes or have exclusive access to sp. markets, but we cant say that any bookstore that does so will have high sales volume

C. gets it wrong. the stimulus says bookstores with high volumes of sales get discount

D. gets it wrong. bookstores with high volumes of sales get discount, discount is related to high volume of sales not to below the market price sales.

E. says just the opposite of what is said in the stimulus. stimulus says: mass taste+exclsuive access to sp. market =>high volume of sales=> publisher discount=>profitable below market price sale

Legendary Member
Posts: 2467
Joined: Thu Aug 28, 2008 6:14 pm
Thanked: 331 times
Followed by:11 members

by cramya » Mon May 11, 2009 8:54 pm
For inference questions a minimalist answer works most of the time.

C is nothing but a logical conclusion of what's stated in the argument:

The only way that bookstores can profitably sell books at below-market prices is to get the books at a discount from publishers

Look at all the other answer choices and they will say something for which we need to assume some extra info along with whats given.


With inference/must be true questions the answer choice we pick must pass the fact test i.e we must always be able to prove the answer choice by referring to the facts given in the argument(i.e. a paraphrase of the facts or logical conclsuion from the facts.The correct answer is either a paraphrase of one or more premises in the argument or a logical conclusion from one or more premises in the argument)

With this said if the answer is not C then I shoudl probably get back to the inference question section of my CR book for sure... :D

Hope this helps!

Regards,
CR
Last edited by cramya on Mon May 11, 2009 9:20 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Legendary Member
Posts: 1169
Joined: Sun Jul 06, 2008 2:34 am
Thanked: 25 times
Followed by:1 members

by aj5105 » Mon May 11, 2009 9:12 pm
Right on the money!

What was your timing, Cramya?
cramya wrote:For inference questions a minimalist answer works most of the time.

C is nothing but a logical conclusion of what's stated in the argument:

The only way that bookstores can profitably sell books at below-market prices is to get the books at a discount from publishers

Look at all the other answer choices and they will say something for which we need to assume some extra info along with whats given.


With inference/must be true questions the answer choice we pick must pass the fact test i.e we must always be able to prove the answer choice by referring to the facts given in the argument(i.e. a paraphrase of the facts or logical conclsuion from the facts.The correct answer are either a paraphrase of one or more premises in the argument or a logical conclusion from one or more premises in the argument)

With this said if the answer is not C then I shoudl probably get back to the inference question section of my CR book for sure... :D

Hope this helps!

Regards,
CR

Legendary Member
Posts: 2467
Joined: Thu Aug 28, 2008 6:14 pm
Thanked: 331 times
Followed by:11 members

by cramya » Mon May 11, 2009 9:18 pm
1-2 (1.40's)

C always looked at attractive from the get go(light bulb was flashing and I just needed to make sure the other lights were defective in some way) based on the theory behind a right answer to an inference question.

I basically asked myself what answer choice can I prove with no assumptions on my side i.e from just what's given in the argument.

May be I got lucky on this one... who knows :)

Regards,
CR

Legendary Member
Posts: 1169
Joined: Sun Jul 06, 2008 2:34 am
Thanked: 25 times
Followed by:1 members

by aj5105 » Mon May 11, 2009 9:22 pm
humble,as always :)
cramya wrote:1-2 (1.40's)

C always looked at attractive from the get go(light bulb was flashing and I just needed to make sure the other lights were defective in some way) based on the theory behind a right answer to an inference question.

I basically asked myself what answer choice can I prove with no assumptions on my side i.e from just what's given in the argument.

May be I got lucky on this one... who knows :)

Regards,
CR

Legendary Member
Posts: 876
Joined: Thu Apr 10, 2008 8:14 am
Thanked: 13 times

by ketkoag » Tue May 12, 2009 2:45 am
cramya wrote:For inference questions a minimalist answer works most of the time.

C is nothing but a logical conclusion of what's stated in the argument:

The only way that bookstores can profitably sell books at below-market prices is to get the books at a discount from publishers

Look at all the other answer choices and they will say something for which we need to assume some extra info along with whats given.


With inference/must be true questions the answer choice we pick must pass the fact test i.e we must always be able to prove the answer choice by referring to the facts given in the argument(i.e. a paraphrase of the facts or logical conclsuion from the facts.The correct answer is either a paraphrase of one or more premises in the argument or a logical conclusion from one or more premises in the argument)

With this said if the answer is not C then I shoudl probably get back to the inference question section of my CR book for sure... :D

Hope this helps!

Regards,
CR
please explain why D is wrong. I selected D coz i thought its the logical negative that is if A, then B. therefore, if not B, then not A. so i selected D coz we can infer the logical negative from the above..
i rejected C at the first pass, coz i thought that it is the other way round what is mentioned in the stimuli.

Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts
Posts: 119
Joined: Tue Jan 20, 2009 10:16 pm
Thanked: 9 times
GMAT Score:730

by mikeCoolBoy » Tue May 12, 2009 6:31 am
Hi ketkoag

I think you drew the first implication the wrong way.

First sentence says

The only way that bookstores can profitably sell books at below-market prices is to get the books at a discount from publishers

Let's say:
B = bookstores can profitably sell books at below-market prices
D = discount from publishers
This implication can be written as: B ----> D and therefore C is correct.

You probably drew the implication D ---> B and therefore not B ---> not D and D should be the correct answer but this is wrong.

Imagine the next implication.

The only way that you can buy a house is to get a loan.

If you get a loan it doesn't imply that you will buy a house, maybe you'll buy something else, but if you buy a house is because you got a loan.

I hope this helps

User avatar
MBA Student
Posts: 532
Joined: Wed Jan 28, 2009 1:39 pm
Location: Barcelona
Thanked: 33 times
Followed by:9 members
GMAT Score:640

by hk » Tue May 12, 2009 11:52 am
Let me throw in a formula for such questions:

Statement: If P -> (then) Q

1. If Q then P => Not always true
2. If Not P then Not Q =>Not true always
3. If Not Q then Not P => Always true.

Eg: All students have books

1. John has a book so he is a student => Not always true. JOhn can be a book seller
2. John is not a Student so he does not have a book =>Not always true. John can be a writer.
3. John does not have a book so he is not a Student => Always True.

Think about it!! :D

Cheers
Wanna know what I'm upto? Follow me on twitter: https://twitter.com/harikrish

Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts
Posts: 197
Joined: Tue Apr 22, 2014 4:03 am

by nicolette » Sun May 15, 2016 12:57 pm
nswer C seems to be logical one out of other answer choices

Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts
Posts: 100
Joined: Tue Aug 05, 2014 11:14 am

by Brad.C » Sun May 15, 2016 1:28 pm
I will choose option D