Logical Reasoning

PT125 · S2 · Q3 Statistics from the National

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Statistics from the National Booksellers Association indicate that during the last five years most bookstores have started to experience declining revenues from the sale of fiction, despite national campaigns to encourage people to read more fiction.

Evidence

Statistics from the National Booksellers Association indicate that during the last five years most bookstores have started to experience declining revenues from the sale of fiction.

Conclusion

National reading campaigns to encourage people to read more fiction have been largely unsuccessful.

Evaluate

It could be that declining revenues from the sale of fiction at bookstores indicates that people are reading less fiction, but other explanations are just as likely. Perhaps people have relied more on the library during the past five years or it could be that revenue per book has fallen and that while people are ready just as much fiction as before, they’re spending less while doing so.

3.

Which one of the following statements, if true, most seriously weakens the argument?

  1. Correct

    Mail order book clubs have

    Why this is right

    This could explain the declining revenues at bookstores. Readers have shifted their purchases from bookstores to mail order book clubs.

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

    81% picked this

  2. During the last five years

    Out of Scope

    The issue is revenue, not profits.

    3% picked this

  3. Fierce competition has forced booksellers

    Out of Scope - Other Group

    The argument is about declining revenue from the sale of fiction, while this is about biographies.

    3% picked this

  4. Due to the poor economic

    Too Weak

    Unless those library users are also acquiring books of fiction, this doesn’t provide an alternative explanation for the declining revenue from fiction at bookstores.

    4% picked this

  5. The National Booksellers Association statistics

    Out Of Scope / Strengthens

    Profits are not relevant, this argument is about revenue. But even if the terms were equivalent, this would strengthen the argument since it would demonstrate that the decline in revenues could not be explained by a decline in foreign sales outside the area these national campaigns operate.

    9% picked this

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