Critical Reasoning

Among the more effective publicity that publishers can get for a new book is to have excerpts of it published in a high-circulation magazine soon before the book is published. The benefits of such an excerption include not only a sure increase in sales but also a fee paid by the magazine to the book's publisher.

Which of the following conclusions is best supported by the information above?

A) The number of people for whom seeing an excerpt of a book in a magazine provides an adequate substitute for reading the whole book is smaller than the number for whom the excerpt stimulates a desire to read the book

B) Because the financial advantage of excepting a new book in a magazine usually accrues to the book's publisher, magazine editors are unwilling to publish excerpts of the book

C) In calculating the total number of copies that a book has sold, publishers include sales of copies of magazines that featured in an excerpt of the book

D) The effectiveness of having excerpts of a book published in a magazine, measured in terms of increased sales of a book, is proportional to the circulation of the magazine in which the excerpts are published.

E) Books that are suitable for excerpting in high-circulation magazines sell more copies than books that are not suitable for excerpting.

-> Answer is (A).

Why is the answer (A).... help please

Its B/w A and D...rests are irrelevant.

I wud have chosen D
as the stem says....excerpts causes increase in sales

Where as i would have refuted A as follows:
Lets 1000 magazines have been circulated..

Let us consider the (opposite of A) scenario:
Num of people who take a substitute for reading the book : 600
Num. of people who actually buy and read the book: 400

--This scenario will also lead to increase in sales

So that means we can'ay that A must be true. Right ?
I also need help in this question

well the question says the BENEFITS of including excerpts in a high circulation mags is increased sales and a fee paid by the magazine to the publisher. It does not say high circulation leads to increased book sales (it does not mention a cause and effect relationship).

nowhere in the question is it mentioned that increased circulation of the magazine will always increase the sales of the book or vice-versa. the question only mentions increased sales of the books as an 'advantage' of high circulation and not the result of high circulation. It could be that you have higher circulation of the magazine and still have low sales of the book.

Hence statement D is making a very strong statement which cannot be proved by the stated facts. It says that higher the circulation of the magazine more will be the books sales and lower the circulation of the magazine lower will be sales. This point cannot be proven by the question and hence this option is incorrect.

mals24 wrote:well the question says the BENEFITS of including excerpts in a high circulation mags is increased sales and a fee paid by the magazine to the publisher. It does not say high circulation leads to increased book sales (it does not mention a cause and effect relationship).

nowhere in the question is it mentioned that increased circulation of the magazine will always increase the sales of the book or vice-versa. the question only mentions increased sales of the books as an 'advantage' of high circulation and not the result of high circulation. It could be that you have higher circulation of the magazine and still have low sales of the book.

Hence statement D is making a very strong statement which cannot be proved by the stated facts. It says that higher the circulation of the magazine more will be the books sales and lower the circulation of the magazine lower will be sales. This point cannot be proven by the question and hence this option is incorrect.

I am not saying that high circulation leads to increase in sales.
What D is saying is if there is higher circulation, it will be more effective in terms of high sales
am not saying higher circulation CAUSES higher sales

Moreover, how do u accept A.
Please take a moment to explain the flaw in my reasoning for selecting A, that would really be helpful

Exactly. I cannot see how (A) can be correct.

D) The effectiveness of having excerpts of a book published in a magazine, measured in terms of increased sales of a book, is proportional to the circulation of the magazine in which the excerpts are published.

This statement says that every time the circulation of the magazine increases, the effectiveness of the book also(in terms of increased sales) increases and every time the circulation falls the effectiveness also falls. Thats what you mean by proportionate right.

Now nowhere in the question is it mentioned that the two factors are proportionate. It just says that one of the BENEFITS of high circulation is increased sales. High circulation could or could not result in increased sales. There is a possibility of either a decrease or increase in sales. But when you say the two are 'proportionate' u mean that an increase in circulation will always be followed by an increase in sales of the book. Can you prove this point by the given facts

A) The number of people for whom seeing an excerpt of a book in a magazine provides an adequate substitute for reading the whole book is smaller than the number for whom the excerpt stimulates a desire to read the book

Now this says the number of people who desire to read the book after reading the excerpt is greater than those who don't.
The facts say that high circulation will lead to increased sales.

In simple terms option A says that there is a net gain in publishing the excerpts and there is a demand for the book and the number of sales will increase. Because if this conclusion was wrong then the facts given will also not hold. This question looks more like an assumption question to me than a conclusion.

So from the facts we can conclude that since high circulation would lead to increase sales there would be a net gain. Why do we have a net gain. This can be proved from the given facts.

Option D basically generalizes the fact. We actually don't have any information about other magazines which don't have a high circulation in order to come to a conclusion about the relationship between circulation and sales in general. Hence that statement is wrong.

mals24 wrote:A) The number of people for whom seeing an excerpt of a book in a magazine provides an adequate substitute for reading the whole book is smaller than the number for whom the excerpt stimulates a desire to read the book

Now this says the number of people who desire to read the book after reading the excerpt is greater than those who don't.
The facts say that high circulation will lead to increased sales.

In simple terms option A says that there is a net gain in publishing the excerpts and there is a demand for the book and the number of sales will increase. Because if this conclusion was wrong then the facts given will also not hold. This question looks more like an assumption question to me than a conclusion.

So from the facts we can conclude that since high circulation would lead to increase sales there would be a net gain. Why do we have a net gain. This can be proved from the given facts.

Option D basically generalizes the fact. We actually don't have any information about other magazines which don't have a high circulation in order to come to a conclusion about the relationship between circulation and sales in general. Hence that statement is wrong.

i have shown the scenario in my previos post in which the Conclusion given by A is false and still it will lead to increase in sales:


Num of people who take a substitute for reading the book : 600
Num. of people who actually buy and read the book: 400

--This scenario will also lead to increase in sales

Now when we say "increase in sales"
We are comparing the sales b/w 2 scenarios:
1) when the excerpts were not published
2) when the excerpts are published

Am i right ?

For inference questions, we accept the statements in the stimulus as true and, as we evaluate each answer choice, ask ourselves "does this HAVE TO be true based on the statements above?"

The stimulus says that publishing excerpts in a magazine guarantees an increase in sales.

Therefore, it MUST be true that reading the excerpt will cause more people to buy the book than people to NOT buy the book.

Let's use Kaplan's denial test on choice (a):

The number of people for whom seeing an excerpt of a book in a magazine provides an adequate substitute for reading the whole book is greater than or equal to the number for whom the excerpt stimulates a desire to read the book.

In other words, people who would have otherwise bought the book outnumber (or are equal to) the people who are enticed to buy the book.

If the denial of (a) is true, then the excerpt has actually led to a decrease in sales or has had no affect on sales, which clearly contradicts the stimulus. Since the denial of (a) contricts something we read, (a) MUST be true: choose (a).

Thanks Stuart.
I got it : Potential buyers are same


that means the following scenario does lead to decrease in sales as potential buyers are 500.

(opposite of A) scenario:
Num of people who take a substitute for reading the book : 600
Num. of people who actually buy and read the book: 400

I would go for A as well. It seems the best and safest among the rest.
11.05.16