The Decline of Perfumery

Answer choices

1. A

   Too Strong: most1% picked this

   The names of the world's best perfumes are not known to

   Nothing in the last paragraph says what most (51% or more) of consumers know / believe / think.

   1%
2. B

   Correct89% picked this

   The profitability of a particular perfume is not a good indicator

   Why this is right

   The last sentence of the passage is decent support for this. Fine perfume (high quality perfume) is hopelessly entangled with the international cosmetic dollar (profitability). But it's also supported by the 2nd sentence in this last paragraph -- "the substitution of cheap compounds that approximately resemble rarer, better ingredients in an effort to increase profits". This is saying that quality goes down, while profit goes up. Thus, a highly profitable perfume would not necessarily be a high quality perfume. (If you were thinking, "wait, isn't profitability a good indicator, since it has an inverse relationship with quality?", that would just be too extreme a reading of what the author is talking about. He isn't generalizing that dramatically. He's saying some companies are swapping more profitable ingredients for higher quality ingredients, and that fine perfume is entangled with cosmetic dollars. So it's messy. It's not a straightforward relationship between high quality is most profitable)

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

   89%
3. C

   Too Strong: pay little attention5% picked this

   Companies that sell perfume pay little attention to what their

   The only mention this paragraph makes about customers is that companies that use cheap chemical compounds to replace rarer, better ingredients don't tell their customers about this switch and presume their customers won't notice the difference The decision not to tell customers about switching out ingredients for an inferior substitute doesn't necessarily mean that companies pay little attention to what customers want. It could easily be a reflection of the opposite. Companies do pay attention and know customers want highly refined perfumes, and that's why the companies don't announce when they're swapping out something better for something cheaper.

   5%
4. D

   Too Strong: never3% picked this

   Perfume makers of the past would never tamper with

   All we know is that the current profit-driven corporations do not hesitate to tamper with old formulas. This is trying bait people into thinking, "whatever we didn't mention was the opposite way". It certainly feels like the author is describing a growing trend in which perfumers tolerate tinkering with old formulas, but we don't have anything that supports the extreme claim that in the past they would never tamper with an old formula.

   3%
5. E

   Too Strong: most / least expensive2% picked this

   Companies that sell perfume make most of their profits on perfumes in the least

   This last paragraph doesn't get specific enough for us to derive the idea that more than 51% of profits comes from the lowest tier of perfume prices.

   2%