The primary way in which a person listens to music can be de

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The primary way in which a person listens to music can be described as either active or passive. It was found that people in the mountain states of the US listen to music in a more active manner i.e. they listen specifically to listen rather than being in a space where music is playing in the background. On the other hand, people in the coastal states of the US consume their music in a more passive manner. Therefore, record labels should conduct more marketing activities in the mountain states because of the higher number of active listeners there compared to the same in the coastal states.

Which of the following indicates a flaw in the author's reasoning?

A. He doesn't take into account the possibility that there might be far less restaurants and pubs, places where music plays in the background, in the mountain states.
B. He doesn't consider listeners who consume their music in both possible ways.
C. Coastal states can have more active listeners than mountain states.
D. Marketing in a region doesn't always mean more sales in that region.
E. Recommendations are always more effective than marketing activities.

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by swatik » Fri May 23, 2014 9:15 pm
IMO A

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by theCodeToGMAT » Sat May 24, 2014 12:50 am
[spoiler]{C}? [/spoiler]

Only this statement explains the flaw...

For example:
Mountain ==> 50 Active Listeners 10 Passive
Coastal ==> 80 Active Listeners 200 Passive...

So, it's flawed!
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by Kamal2014 » Fri May 30, 2014 12:13 am
I think answer is C. Please post the actual answer!
Thanks in advance.
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INNER PEACE!!!
aditya8062 wrote:The primary way in which a person listens to music can be described as either active or passive. It was found that people in the mountain states of the US listen to music in a more active manner i.e. they listen specifically to listen rather than being in a space where music is playing in the background. On the other hand, people in the coastal states of the US consume their music in a more passive manner. Therefore, record labels should conduct more marketing activities in the mountain states because of the higher number of active listeners there compared to the same in the coastal states.

Which of the following indicates a flaw in the author's reasoning?

A. He doesn't take into account the possibility that there might be far less restaurants and pubs, places where music plays in the background, in the mountain states.
B. He doesn't consider listeners who consume their music in both possible ways.
C. Coastal states can have more active listeners than mountain states.
D. Marketing in a region doesn't always mean more sales in that region.
E. Recommendations are always more effective than marketing activities.

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by ceilidh.erickson » Sat May 31, 2014 9:31 am
This is a really poorly written question. For starters, there are several un-GMAT-like flaws (these aren't actually related to how to solve the CR question, but simply indicative of poor understanding of GMAT structures):

- the GMAT will never assume that the author is a "he."
- "far less restaurants" is grammatically incorrect. How could someone publish a "GMAT" question with such a basic flaw?!

The flaw that the author of this question is trying to address, though poorly (and notice that I don't make the sexist assumption that the author is male! Although that's most likely the case, considering the flaw) is the conflation of PROPORTION and NUMBER. This is a very common logic flaw on the GMAT.

"People in the mountain states of the US listen to music in a more active manner" is indicative of a per-capita metric.
"Higher number of active listeners" is a value-based metric.
Do we know that higher proportion = higher number? Not necessarily. What if coastal states had much higher numbers of people? Then, a smaller proportion of active listeners could actually be a higher number of active listeners than in the coastal states.

So, C is the only answer choice that addresses this issue (although the wording is poor).

Please always post your sources for questions, because people need to know which sources are poor ones to study from!
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by aditya8062 » Sat May 31, 2014 9:46 am
ceilidh i feel that the flaw of proportion and number is not really coming out in the text of the question. also the construction in the questions premise "because of the higher number of active listeners there compared to the same in the coastal states" is just opposite of what C states !!
i mean we just cannot negate the premise
in other words i feel that this is poorly worded question. although the intent in authors mind might be to create the flaw of "number and proportion",that intent is just not coming out in the text of the question

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by ceilidh.erickson » Sat May 31, 2014 9:51 am
aditya8062 wrote:ceilidh i feel that the flaw of proportion and number is not really coming out in the text of the question. also the construction in the questions premise "because of the higher number of active listeners there compared to the same in the coastal states" is just opposite of what C states !!
i mean we just cannot negate the premise
in other words i feel that this is poorly worded question. although the intent in authors mind might be to create the flaw of "number and proportion",that intent is just not coming out in the text of the question
I totally agree with you. I'm assuming that proportion v. number is what the author intended, but as written there is no right answer to this question. You're absolutely right, we're not allowed to negate a premise - it should have been written "because they believe that higher numbers..." etc.

What is the source of this question?
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by aditya8062 » Sat May 31, 2014 10:15 am
What is the source of this question?
ceilidh the source is some "self made" question by some guy in Gmat club .and as it is rightly said there are no free luncheons so is the credibility of this questions.
however thanks for your opinion.