PrepTest 136, Section 4, Question 4
Company spokesperson: Household Products magazine claims that our(39 more words not shown)
Which one of the following,(9 more words not shown)
- AHousehold Products did(15 more words not shown)
- BMost Filterator X(15 more words not shown)
- CPeople whose household(17 more words not shown)
- DVery few people(12 more words not shown)
- EHousehold Products' evaluations(9 more words not shown)
Reading the argument
What if the customers cannot tell that the chemicals are still there?
The magazine criticizes the filter's ability to remove chemical contaminants. The company answers that millions of owners are satisfied. I understand why the company likes that fact, but satisfaction is not automatically a test of chemical removal. Customers might believe the filter works without being able to check the water themselves.
If chemicals remain unnoticed, owners could happily use the filter while the magazine's criticism is entirely accurate. The size of the satisfied group would not repair that problem: millions of people could share the same mistaken impression.
What we’re looking for
To weaken the response, I want a reason that these customers' experiences do not tell us whether the filter removes significant amounts of the chemicals. We are testing the connection between satisfaction and the specific performance being criticized.
Working the answers
- A
Taste is a different feature of the water. A filter might improve the taste without removing significant amounts of chemical contaminants. The magazine's failure to evaluate taste does not undermine its criticism about those contaminants or directly expose the problem with relying on satisfied owners.
- BCorrect
Most owners cannot determine how effectively the filter removes the contaminants. Their satisfaction therefore gives us little reason to reject a criticism of that particular performance. They may be happy because they believe the water is cleaner, while lacking any way to discover that the chemicals remain. B directly undermines the spokesperson's evidence.
- C
This tells us which households are more likely to buy the filter. People with contaminated water have an understandable reason to want one. But wanting chemical removal does not establish that the purchased filter provides it, or that the owners can tell whether it does.
- D
Reading the magazine regularly is not what makes a filter effective. Owners might never see its reviews and still have accurate or inaccurate impressions of their water. D does not establish that their satisfaction is a poor measure of chemical removal.
- E
Repeated negative evaluations could reflect a consistently poor product or a consistently mistaken assessment. The history alone does not tell us which. We need evidence bearing on the filter's performance or on the reliability of the satisfied owners' experience, not merely more information about the magazine's past verdicts.
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