The only way that bookstores can profitably sell books at below–market prices is to get the books at a discount from ...

on July 11, 2017

Whats going on

What are the premises?

Replies
Create a free account to read and take part in forum discussions.

Already have an account? log in

Mehran on July 21, 2017

@fari97 this is not an argument. This is a set of facts.

You can watch the video explanation by tapping the play icon in the top right hand corner of the screen when viewing this question.

You can view this question directly from this message board by tap "View" in the top right hand corner of this screen.

Hope that helps! Please let us know if you have any other questions.

on June 27, 2022

@mehran can you help me with the strategy to tackle this question type? I picked E because I thought it told an instance that CANNOT happen. How to I get to the correct answer?

Emil on July 6, 2022

Hi Alex,

Our original statement is Not RE unless PW.

I like to approach an unless statement by replacing the unless with "if it is not the case"

That would then make our statement: Not RE if it is not the case that PW.

We can then diagram this as

If Not PW -> Not RE.

For an unless statement, we negate the sufficient condition.

Emil on July 6, 2022

Hi BennyB33, ignore the earlier response I mistakenly posted.

Questions where the question stem introduces a new condition like this are a bit weird. I would try to understand the passage as best as possible, and then focus on the additional condition.

The passage sets out the following:
If a bookshop profits from below market prices, it must get a discount.
To get a discount, it must have high volume.
To get high volume, they must cater to mass taste, or have a large specialized market.

To sum up, the only way a bookstore can sell below market prices profitably is if they do one of two things: cater to mass tastes or have a large specialized market.

The question asks about a bookshop that does not cater to mass tastes. So, we know that if this bookshop sells profitably at below market prices, it must have a large, specialized market.

That is, This cannot lack a large specialized market and profitably sell books at below market prices.

This is a good match for C. E actually could happen.