PrepTest 126, Section 1, Question 10
Unlike many machines that are perfectly useful in(52 more words not shown)
The information above provides the(9 more words not shown)
- AWhenever machines are(16 more words not shown)
- BIn some industries(15 more words not shown)
- CThe more competitors(21 more words not shown)
- DSome cooperation among(12 more words not shown)
- ECooperation is beneficial(13 more words not shown)
Reading the argument
A fax machine needs another fax machine to receive its message. If the machines can't communicate, having a perfectly functional machine at your end doesn't accomplish much.
Imagine a phone that could send messages only to phones of the same brand. That would limit whom you could contact. The fax manufacturers faced a similar problem: their incompatible formats made the technology less useful and harder to sell. Agreeing on a common format addressed that problem. This reasoning makes sense; there's no need to invent an objection.
What we’re looking for
What does that support? Sometimes competitors benefit from working together on a shared standard. They can make their products work with one another and still compete to sell them. Keep that limited point in mind as the answers try to turn this example into broader rules.
Working the answers
- A
The problem is incompatible formats, not competition itself. Manufacturers could agree on a format and still compete over price or features. One example in which incompatible designs caused trouble doesn't establish that competition always damages industries whose products need to work together.
- BCorrect
The fax industry gives us an example of competitors having a shared interest in some cooperation. A common format makes their products useful to more people, helping their commercial prospects. “Some industries” and “to some extent” fit the limited conclusion this example supports.
- C
The passage mentions a large number of competing manufacturers, but it never establishes this sliding rule: more competitors means more required cooperation over basic design. It doesn't compare an industry with five competitors to one with a hundred. Agreement on one communication format also isn't necessarily agreement on the product's entire basic design.
- D
This is tempting because cooperation did help here. But D states the benefit of cooperation among manufacturers in the same industry as a general proposition. Our evidence gives us one industry with a particular compatibility problem; it doesn't establish that broader rule about cooperation being better than pure competition. B makes the smaller claim we can support: there are some industries in which some cooperation serves the competitors' interests.
- E
We have one reason cooperation can help, not the only setting in which it can help. Nothing here rules out benefits from cooperation in an industry whose products work independently. E adds an exclusivity claim that the fax example cannot establish.
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