Tony: A new kind of videocassette

Answer choices

1. A

   Irrelevant Comparison6% picked this

   The price that video rental stores pay for movies recorded on videocassettes is considerably less than the retail

   The retail price of a movie (if you bought a physical copy of the movie from Best Buy) is totally out of scope. We are comparing rental stores who buy the old kind of videocassette to rental stores who buy the new kind of videocassette.

   6%
2. B

   Unclear Impact9% picked this

   A significant proportion of the movies on videocassette purchased by video rental stores are bought as replacements for worn-out copies of movies

   This allows us to say, "Sure Anna, we have to pay a royalty fee for every new copy, but we already have to buy new copies because we've got worn out old copies we need to replace. So since we're paying the royalty fee either way, wouldn't it make sense to buy the cheaper new kind of cassette instead of the old kind?" If this were the last time we had to buy a replacement sure. But if we're eventually going to wear out this copy and then have to replace it too, then that's where Anna's logic beats us. If we end up buying a new style cassette, and then we rent it and it wears out and we need to buy a replacement for that, then we will have wasted money (because now we'll be paying the royalty fee yet again, whereas if we had bought an old style cassette as our replacement it wouldn't be warn out yet).

   9%
3. C

   Correct81% picked this

   The royalty fee included in the price that video rental stores pay for movies on the new kind of videocassette will be half that

   Why this is right

   This helps us respond to Anna while defending Tony. "Yes, Anna, royalty fees are a huge part of the expense. But we should still buy the new style, because they also come with a royalty that's only half as big as the one on the old style."

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

   81%
4. D

   No Impact3% picked this

   Given a choice, customers are more likely to buy a movie on videocassette than to rent it if the rental fee is more

   The argument has nothing to do with customers buying movies, nor do we ever talk about what fraction of the retail price the rental price would be. This argument isn't about what customers would buy; it's about which type of cassette rental stores should acquire to rent out to customers.

   3%
5. E

   No Impact1% picked this

   Many of the movies rented from video rental stores, particularly children’s movies, average several viewings

   Whether tapes wear out because they're rented by lots of people and watched once or rented by a smaller group of people but watched multiple times makes no difference. However, it happens, tapes wear out. This doesn't help us decide whether we should replace those worn out tapes with the new style or the old style, and certainly isn't responding to Anna's royalty comment at all.

   1%