Logical Reasoning

PT113 · S2 · Q6 Advertisement: At most jewelry stores

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Advertisement: At most jewelry stores, the person assessing the diamond is the person selling it, so you can see why an assessor might say that a diamond is of higher quality than it really is.

Conclusion

You're assured of a fair price when purchasing a diamond from Gem World.

Evidence (because)

All diamonds sold at Gem World are certified in writing.

Evaluate

How might we object to the conclusion?

Given that ... all diamonds sold at Gem World are certified in writing, How could it still be that ... you are not assured of a fair price when you buy a diamond there?

I guess I would want to know, fair" markup to their cost? Are there any other sorts of warranties or cleanings or other add-on fees that they pressure customers into buying, which results in an unfair price?

Goal

Since the support for the conclusion is so thin (it's certified in writing), the correct answer will probably try to boost our confidence that "certified in writing" = trustworthy evaluation.

But it could also rule out some other potential concern about ways in which Gem World might get people to pay more than a fair price.

Or it could just offer some independent evidence that makes it more plausible that Gem World sells diamonds at fair prices.

6.

The reasoning in the advertisement would be most strengthened if which one of the following were true?

  1. Many jewelry stores other than

    Unclear Impact

    On its face, it doesn't really matter whether Gem World is the only store that provides written certification or whether it's very common. We still don't know whether providing certification has anything to do with guaranteeing a fair price.

    0% picked this

  2. The certifications of diamonds at

    Unclear Impact

    This is somewhat promising, but the underlying concern in this situation is whether the person assessing value (appraising the gem) has an ulterior motive because they are also the person selling you the gem. The author starts off by telling us about a potentially dishonest practice in which the person selling you the diamond might say that a diamond is of higher quality than it really is. Those assessors / diamond sellers might be people with years of experience in appraising gems. In fact, this body of experience would almost be required in order for them to effectively "scam" people into paying higher prices. They would need to know, for example, "this diamond is only worth $500, so I could probably sucker someone into paying $700 for it". The idea of having certification in writing doesn't solve this problem, because the assessor could think, "Hmm, based on my experience, I can see this diamond is only world $500, but I'll certify it as a $700 diamond so that my store can sell it for more."

    8% picked this

  3. The diamonds sold at Gem

    Irrelevant Comparison

    We don't care whether Gem World's diamonds are average, worse than average, or better than average. We're only trying to ascertain whether they are fairly priced, given their quality (whatever that may be).

    2% picked this

  4. The diamond market is so

    Weakens, if anything

    A price/value that is certified in writing is stuck as written. Meanwhile, if the diamond market is so volatile that prices of top diamonds can change by hundreds of dollars from one day to the next, then we would have reason to suspect that some of the certified prices are no longer accurate, when it comes to the present diamond market. This makes it seem more like you aren't assured of a fair price, since your diamond might have been certified at a time when the price of diamonds was much higher than it is now.

    1% picked this

  5. Correct

    The written certifications of diamonds

    Why this is right

    The advertisement was trying to show us that there's a meaningful difference between how prices are set / assessed at most other jewelry stores vs. how that's done at Gem World. At other stores, the person assessing is the same as the person selling, and so this creates a motive for setting unfair prices (that self-servingly benefit the store). At Gem World, the diamonds are certified. Okay ... but by whom? Is it still the case that the person certifying / assessing the diamond is the same as the person selling it? Has Gem World gotten rid of the self-serving motive to price diamonds higher than what they're worth? According to this answer, yes! Since the certification isn't being done by people at Gem World, but instead is being done by an independent company of specialists, we have reason to think that these prices would be fairly set. The independent company of specialists doesn't have any motive to lie about the actual value of the diamonds that Gem World is selling.

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

    89% picked this

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