Jean: Our navigational equipment

Answer choices

1. A

   Out of Scope: Profits9% picked this

   There is a greater potential for profits in the low-cost market than there is in

   Nothing in this conversation touches on profit potential. We wouldn't be able to infer that either person believes this answer choice. Jean thinks we can increase overall sales by introducing a low-cost model, but she might be thinking that the bulk of our sales / profits will still be in the high end market.

   9%
2. B

   No Support from Either2% picked this

   The proposed cheaper model, if it were made available, would sell to customers who would otherwise be buying

   It would be hard to infer disagreement from either party, because no one went out on a limb and said, "No one who would have bought the present model would buy this hypothetical cheaper model". Jean certainly wasn't thinking there would be much switching from one product to the other, because she was thinking of the cheaper model as appealing to a different customer. She thought those sales would be additive, because the company would continue to dominate the high end. But we can't say she believes that no one would switch. Furthermore, Tracy isn't directly talking about people switching from one product to the other. She's worried about lowering the prestige of this company's reputation by offering a cheaper model. She's worried that people who currently would have bought this company's present model (because they want to buy from the company that's known for quality) would start to consider buying a competing unit in the $1100 range, since they'd see all high-cost choices more on equal footing than they currently do.

   2%
3. C

   Out of Scope: Dominate Low-Cost11% picked this

   The company could dominate the low-cost market in the same way it has dominated

   We couldn't infer that either person is claiming that the company could dominate the low-cost market. Jean is closer to sounding like that, and she's only saying that by offering a low-cost option, this company could increase its overall sales. But she doesn't need to believe that this company would be #1 in both high-end and low-end. She's just saying, "Let's sell some units in the low-cost market, so that we can add overall sales".

   11%
4. D

   Correct76% picked this

   The company would no longer dominate the high-cost market if it began selling

   Why this is right

   We know that Jean would disagree with this, because she explicitly says that the low-cost model "would allow us to increase our overall sales while continuing to dominate the high end." We can support that Tracy would agree with this, since she's worried that "moving into the low-cost market would put our competitors in the high-cost market on an equal footing with us, which could hurt overall sales". Technically that's not saying that the company would lose dominance (it would lose something but might still be #1), but we can definitely support the idea that Tracy believes selling a low-cost model would threaten our position in the high-cost market.

   Skill tested: Agree/Disagree · how this choice captures the argument's function is the move to repeat next time.

   76%
5. E

   No Support from Either1% picked this

   Decreased sales of the high-cost model would result in poor sales for the

   Neither person is arguing that decreased sales of the high-cost would cause poor sales in the proposed low-cost model. Jean is optimistic that they'd continue to dominate the high end, so she has no position when it comes to "decreased sales of high-cost causing X". Tracy thinks that introducing a low-cost model would hurt the high-cost market (by putting competitors on equal footing), but she never says that a bad high-cost market would cause poor sales for the low-cost model.

   1%