Critical Reasoning

In Brindon County, virtually all of the fasteners—such as nuts, bolts, and screws—used by workshops and manufacturing firms have for several years been supplied by the Brindon Bolt Barn, a specialist wholesaler. In recent months many of Brindon County’s workshops and manufacturing firms have closed down, and no new ones have opened. Therefore, the Brindon Bolt Barn will undoubtedly show a sharp decline in sales volume and revenue for this year as compared to last year.

The argument depends on assuming which of the following?

A. Last year the Brindon Bolt Barn’s sales volume and revenue were significantly higher than they had been the previous year.
B. The workshops and manufacturing firms that have remained open have a smaller volume of work to do this year than they did last year.
C. Soon the Brindon Bolt Barn will no longer be the only significant supplier of fasteners to Brindon County’s workshops.
D. The Brindon Bolt Barn’s operating expenses have not increased this year.
E. The Brindon Bolt Barn is not a company that gets the great majority of its business from customers outside Brindon County

Please explain your choices otherwise there is no point in having discussion.

A - NO - Is not the complete answer and doesn’t talk about the argument given - In recent months many of Brindon County’s workshops and manufacturing firms have closed down"

B - NO - Just talks about the remaining workshop and fails to point out impact of the closed once.

C. - NO - Can be a probable answer but lacks the strength as in the question there is no mention of other firms, though it does say that wholesale supplier but still doesn’t talk about the status of other firms.

D. - NO -Doesn’t support the argument

E. - YES- This looks like the best choice of answer as it explains the dependency of Brindon Bolt Barn on the business within the country.

@ankur_ty

its clearly mentioned in the stem that
1 many of Brindon County’s workshops and manufacturing firms have closed down
2 no new ones have opened

Statement 1 + statement 2 + choice B i.e. remaining workshops/firms have smaller volumeof work to do
Together these three facts imply that overall demand of product of Brindon Bolt (BB) would be sharply down.

I agree that you may counter argue this by coming up with the possibility of having majority of BB clients from outside Brindon county. But in this way, you can also counter argue choice E by saying that although many workshops/firms have closed down in Brindon county but demand by the remainging ones has shoot up hence no sharp decline in the demand for BB products.

Moreover, i dont understand when you say " there is no mention of other firms" since it's a assumption based question in which we have to accept whatever offered in answer choices as true. In other words, there is no such thing as SCOPE in assumption based question.

If you negate choice E; the argument is weakened.......
IMO E
whats the OA....

kaycee wrote:In Brindon County, virtually all of the fasteners—such as nuts, bolts, and screws—used by workshops and manufacturing firms have for several years been supplied by the Brindon Bolt Barn, a specialist wholesaler. In recent months many of Brindon County’s workshops and manufacturing firms have closed down, and no new ones have opened. Therefore, the Brindon Bolt Barn will undoubtedly show a sharp decline in sales volume and revenue for this year as compared to last year.

The argument depends on assuming which of the following?

A. Last year the Brindon Bolt Barn’s sales volume and revenue were significantly higher than they had been the previous year.
B. The workshops and manufacturing firms that have remained open have a smaller volume of work to do this year than they did last year.
C. Soon the Brindon Bolt Barn will no longer be the only significant supplier of fasteners to Brindon County’s workshops.
D. The Brindon Bolt Barn’s operating expenses have not increased this year.
E. The Brindon Bolt Barn is not a company that gets the great majority of its business from customers outside Brindon County

Please explain your choices otherwise there is no point in having discussion.

IMO B. I believe this has to be assumed for the argument to exist since if we negate this effect, i.e. if the units that are open have more business than usual then the steep decline might not happen.

I was a little confused between B and E. I did not choose because even if E was true , Brindon can still have more business from Brindon county and hence not have a steep decline in profit .

Please let me know the OA.

kaycee wrote:In Brindon County, virtually all of the fasteners—such as nuts, bolts, and screws—used by workshops and manufacturing firms have for several years been supplied by the Brindon Bolt Barn, a specialist wholesaler. In recent months many of Brindon County’s workshops and manufacturing firms have closed down, and no new ones have opened. Therefore, the Brindon Bolt Barn will undoubtedly show a sharp decline in sales volume and revenue for this year as compared to last year.

The argument depends on assuming which of the following?

A. Last year the Brindon Bolt Barn’s sales volume and revenue were significantly higher than they had been the previous year.
B. The workshops and manufacturing firms that have remained open have a smaller volume of work to do this year than they did last year.
C. Soon the Brindon Bolt Barn will no longer be the only significant supplier of fasteners to Brindon County’s workshops.
D. The Brindon Bolt Barn’s operating expenses have not increased this year.
E. The Brindon Bolt Barn is not a company that gets the great majority of its business from customers outside Brindon County

Please explain your choices otherwise there is no point in having discussion.

I second B for reasons explained above.

I would go for E too

Was slightly torn between B and E. However E to me is clear winner!

i will stick to B , bcoz if the demands will be raised by the remaining firms then it will inc the sales for BB

IMO - E

IMO ..B

OA please?

thanks for your inputs..OA is E...
There is little gap in choice B. Please correct me if I am wrong.

Though many workshops have closed down & remaining workshops have smaller volume of work to do, but how much impact (in terms of sales/revenue) these will have on BB's revenue is not clear in choice B.

Whereas E is clearly commenting on the impact i.e. GREAT MAJORITY of its BUSINESS

I think I will also go with E.

IMO E..you can assume it even before reading the answer choices and that's what i did..

kaycee wrote:In Brindon County, virtually all of the fasteners?such as nuts, bolts, and screws?used by workshops and manufacturing firms have for several years been supplied by the Brindon Bolt Barn, a specialist wholesaler. In recent months many of Brindon County?s workshops and manufacturing firms have closed down, and no new ones have opened. Therefore, the Brindon Bolt Barn will undoubtedly show a sharp decline in sales volume and revenue for this year as compared to last year.

The argument depends on assuming which of the following?

A. Last year the Brindon Bolt Barn?s sales volume and revenue were significantly higher than they had been the previous year.
B. The workshops and manufacturing firms that have remained open have a smaller volume of work to do this year than they did last year.
C. Soon the Brindon Bolt Barn will no longer be the only significant supplier of fasteners to Brindon County?s workshops.
D. The Brindon Bolt Barn?s operating expenses have not increased this year.
E. The Brindon Bolt Barn is not a company that gets the great majority of its business from customers outside Brindon County

Please explain your choices otherwise there is no point in having discussion.

I chose B, OA is E
1) But guys, dont u think, E goes out of scope.. as the arguement doesnt imply outside customers ??
IMO B is more correct !!

Wat say ?

2) Ron, there are two types of argument namely, DEFENDER type and SUPPORT type (Power Score CR Bible)
I am confused between the SUPPORT ASSUMPTION and STRENGHTEN THE ARGUMENT type

any tips... pleasplease