Critical Reasoning

Source: Veritas Prep CR2

78. The soviet blockade of West Berlin following World War 2 has widely been acclaimed as a failure. The goal of the blockade was to restrict the supply of commodities in West Berlin. If the blockade had been successful, the wholesale price of commodities such as potatoes, sugar, and milk would not have dropped substantially during the blockade.

The argument in the passage depends on which of the following assumption?

A: The supply of commodities available in West Berlin dropped substantially during the blockade.
B: The price paid for the most commodities by the average consumer in West Berlin increased during the blockade.
C: Shortly after the blockade began, Allied forces began an aircraft of commodities that flew over 1500 flights per day into Berlin.
D: The wholesale price of a few commodities skyrocketed in West Berlin during the Soviet blockade.
E: A substantial drop in the demand for common commodities was not the sole cause of the drop in their wholesale price.

OA: E

i would pick C...if it reads Shortly after the blockade began, Allied forces began an airlift of commodities that flew over 1500 flights per day into Berlin.

if we say C then would be too broad thinking (some say too much to infer)
So I feel
E holds as this could be reason the prices might have dropped ...lower demand means price goes low....this can be one possible factor but it has not been considered in question....
so E

I would go with C too....POE though! Other choices just don't go well!

I would like to go with E (although C was the other choice )

In C - i feel - If there was a blockade by Soviet - then 1500 perday seems a bit contraversial to BLOCKADE...probably am thinking to much.

So will go with E.

please post the OA.

YellowSapphire wrote:Source: Veritas Prep CR2

78. The soviet blockade of West Berlin following World War 2 has widely been acclaimed as a failure. The goal of the blockade was to restrict the supply of commodities in West Berlin. If the blockade had been successful, the wholesale price of commodities such as potatoes, sugar, and milk would not have dropped substantially during the blockade.

The argument in the passage depends on which of the following assumption?

A: The supply of commodities available in West Berlin dropped substantially during the blockade.
B: The price paid for the most commodities by the average consumer in West Berlin increased during the blockade.
C: Shortly after the blockade began, Allied forces began an aircraft of commodities that flew over 1500 flights per day into Berlin.
D: The wholesale price of a few commodities skyrocketed in West Berlin during the Soviet blockade.
E: A substantial drop in the demand for common commodities was not the sole cause of the drop in their wholesale price.

Okay, so what 's the conclusion of the argument? The soviet blockade of West Berlin following World War 2 has widely been acclaimed as a failure

Evidence is: If restriction woyld have been successful, there would have been "substantial drop in price". But there is NO DROP in prices. So restriction is NOT strong .SO that leads to failure of blockade.

What may be assumptions?? One common thought would be "what if there is a drop is Demand??

Let's see what E has to say!!

"A substantial drop in the demand for common commodities was not the sole cause of the drop in their wholesale price. "

Here it connotes that, Not only the drop in demand is the cause but also "some other" entity has paved the way for fall in prices.
That may be too much of supply ( becox of failed restriction) or "Inhouse Plantation of entities"....

We can also apply negation technique to E to check if the conclusion falls apart or not!!

Pick E

Here we have an assumption question. You are looking for the answer choice that is required by the argument.

GMATMachoman is correct that the answer is E because the argument is relying on the fact that the failure of the blockade was the cause for the drop in prices rather than a drop in demand.

Several people either chose C or had it in contention. Please remember that with an assumption question those answers that are too strongly worded or too specific do not make good assumptions. In this case answer choice C is both strong and specific. "Shortly after the blockade began, Allied forces began an airlift of commodities that flew over 1500 flights per day into Berlin." Do you see how these facts do not need to be true? What if 1499 flights flew per day? This is not "over 1500" but does that mean it is not enough flights? What if there were no flights at all, but the blockade was undermined by the use of boats or cars or trains?

You see, answer choice C is a better choice for a strengthen question. This would provide good support for the idea that the blockade was a failure. After all over 1500 flights per day shows the blockade is not stopping everything! But for this question you are not trying to strengthen the conclusion that it was a failure as much as you are trying to prevent someone from undermining your conclusion. One way to undermine the link between the evidence of lower prices and the conclusion that this is due to ample supply is to show that it is demand that has dropped. E prevents this possible weakening from occurring and hence it is the assumption.

thanks brian for the explanation.............
btw..............hope the original does not have this error

Shortly after the blockade began, Allied forces began an aircraft of commodities that flew over 1500 flights per day into Berlin.

it should read....Shortly after the blockade began, Allied forces began an airlift of commodities that flew over 1500 flights per day into Berlin.

thanks David

That was really a great insight
thank you

Thanks GMATRIX, no the original does not have the error it says "airlift."

YellowSapphire wrote:Source: Veritas Prep CR2

78. The soviet blockade of West Berlin following World War 2 has widely been acclaimed as a failure. The goal of the blockade was to restrict the supply of commodities in West Berlin. If the blockade had been successful, the wholesale price of commodities such as potatoes, sugar, and milk would not have dropped substantially during the blockade.

The argument in the passage depends on which of the following assumption?

A: The supply of commodities available in West Berlin dropped substantially during the blockade.
B: The price paid for the most commodities by the average consumer in West Berlin increased during the blockade.
C: Shortly after the blockade began, Allied forces began an aircraft of commodities that flew over 1500 flights per day into Berlin.
D: The wholesale price of a few commodities skyrocketed in West Berlin during the Soviet blockade.
E: A substantial drop in the demand for common commodities was not the sole cause of the drop in their wholesale price.

OA: E

\E gave out another reason to explain why the wholesale price of commodities dropped thus if negative E it will weaken the conclusion thus E is the answer

Thanks David for such a wonderful explanation. The post actually thought me to distinguish between strengthen and assumption questions.