Critical Reasoning: Boldface Type Questions
Marketing advisors maintain that a greater diversity in the range of skin care products available to shoppers means that more shoppers will find a product which will answer their exact needs and preferences. Therefore, presenting a wide range of skin care products on supermarket shelves is advocated in order to increase the number of buyers and their satisfaction level. In practice, however, the situation is quite different, since the larger the variety of skin care products on the shelves is, the less distinct the differences between them become.
In the given argument, the two portions in boldface type play which of the following roles?
Incorrect.
[[snippet]]While this answer choice defines the first boldface part correctly, it defines the second incorrectly. The strategy (-->recommendation-->conclusion) advocated by the marketing advisors appears in sentence 2, not in the second boldface portion, which opposes that strategy.
Good!
The first boldface portion is indeed a theory or explanation upon which the marketing advisors' strategy (their conclusion) is based. The second boldface portion is fact or point (premise) which undermines this theory, lending support to the author's claim that the situation is quite different.
Incorrect.
[[snippet]]While this answer choice defines the first boldface part correctly, it defines the second incorrectly. The consideration presented in the secondboldface portion does not support the marketing advisors' strategy (conclusion) appearing in sentence 2 - it undermines it, supporting instead the author's conclusion that the situation is quite different.
Incorrect.
[[snippet]]The first portion in boldface is not a strategy but the theory or explanation behind the strategy. The strategy is a plan of action - what the advisers intend to do, which is to present a wide range of skin care products. The first boldface does not detail this strategy - the following sentence does. Realize this, and you can immediately eliminate answer choices that incorrectly define the first boldface part; do not waste time reading the rest.
