Princeton Verbal1 Q10

Hi. At first sight it seems to be number 3 the right one, but I go for number 4. This is why:

3) The costs of material is the primary financial burden of a contracting company
Well, for me this assumption is important, in the sense that it supports the idea that the contracting companies will save money (so increase their profit) by using low-cost materials. But ¿what if this do not apply to all of their clients because they have different needs? (well, maybe the client really wants to use low-costs materials, but his house is so high-tech that he must ask for expensive materials for the renovation), ¿if the use of low-cost materials only apply, let’s say to a 30% of their clients?, ¿would it still be a good and profitable decision (to use low-cost materials)?. In this sense, statement number 3 is weak.

4) Any renovation of a house can be accomplished by restructuring the interior with low-cost, sturdy materials.
This statement is stronger than number 3. There is an absolute idea that is important: “ANY renovation of a house can be accomplished…”. So, no matter who is your client, the size of the house, the difficult of the renovation, the distance to carry materials, etc; the contracting company will be capable to do the work and make a profitable business.

IMO D

i think there is a simpler way to approach this problem.
its clear that it is a tashan between C n D.

In assumption questions, u can put a validity check on the answers.
just make a particular answer choice as false n check whether the argument still holds its meaning.
For eg., consider if C is false i.e; the cost of materials is not the primary financial burden of a contracting company. still contracting company can save money by using low cost materials bcoz cost of materials does have an effect on their financial burden. hence this choice is eliminated.

now consider choice D as false i.e; any renovation of house cannot be achieved using low cost materials. As a result no customer would ask the contracting company to use low cost materials. due to this the question of reducing expenses, by using low cost materials, will not come into picture.
as a result the argument will not hold any meaning.

hence the author has to assume choice D to hold on to his argument.
hope the above explanation helps.

Thanks!

Learn the negation rule for assumption question.

If you are confused in assumption questions you can always verify your answer by doing a logical negation on the answer you think is right. The logical apposite of a correct answer will weaken the argument.

Lets see you answer:

Logical negation: The cost of the materials is not the primary burden of the contracting company.

Does this weaken the argument. Not at all, it is actually out of scope because saving money has nothing to do with the primary financial burden.

Lets look at the right answer:

Logical negation: any renovation of the house can NOT be achieved with the low cost material.

If this was true then the argument is weakened, hence the correct answer.

i think it's D