GMAC Practice Test: Critical Reasoning 2

[sarora]

A product that represents a clear technological advance over competing products can generally command a high price. Because TECHNOLOGICAL ADVANCES TEND TO BE QUICKLY SURPASSED and companies want to make large profits while they still can, MANY COMPANIES CHARGE THE MAXIMUM POSSIBLE PRICE FOR SUCH A PRODUCT. But large profits on the new product will give competitors a strong incentive to quickly match the new product's capabilities. Consequently, the strategy to maximize overall profit from a new product is to charge kess than the greatest possible price.

In the argument above, the two portions in Bold play which if the following?

GMAC: The first is a consideration raised to explain the appeal of a certain strategy; the second represents that strategy.
Me: The first is a consideration that has been used to justify pursuing a goal that the argument rejects, the second presents a course of action that has been adopted in pursuit of that goal.

Can someone also tell me the classification of this question?

[RonPurewal]

Another subtle problem.

Look at the first half of each choice. They are essentially identical, but for the use of 'strategy' in the GMAC choice and of 'goal' in yours.

What's referred to - the charging of the maximal price for a product - is better described as a strategy than as a goal. The 'goal' here is to maximize profit.

[sarora]

I agree with you,

but

I think the second option represents the whole argument instead of only the first part where the 'strategy' has been described.

Also, both the first and second part of this choice, indicate that the consideration or the course of action is used to pursue a goal which is indeed to maximize profit. So I think it basically boils down to : GMAC's choice looks good if we consider the first 4 lines of the argument and what I chose looks good in the overall perspective.

Comments?

[RonPurewal]

Here's another consideration which I didn't address the first time: You and I agree that the 'goal' in this problem is, indeed, to maximize profit.

Since we agree on that, we must also agree that the first part of your answer choice doesn't make sense, because it implies that the argument rejects the goal of maximizing profit. That isn't true, as the argument rejects only the strategy of price-gouging as a means of maximizing profit.

Also note that there is nothing wrong with the fact that GMAC's answer looks good in '4 lines', as you say. In fact, these questions consistently fool students with answer choices that actually refer to the 'overall picture' when they aren't supposed to! Your job here is only to outline the specific function of the indicated lines, and nothing more. In particular, it is NOT your job to delineate the rest of the argument, as weird as that may seem.

[RonPurewal]

see also here:

post42024.html#p42024