PrepTest 140, Section 1, Question 2
Accountant: The newspaper industry habitually cites the rising(53 more words not shown)
The accountant's argument proceeds(1 more words not shown)
- Areinterpreting a popular(12 more words not shown)
- Busing economic data(12 more words not shown)
- Ccriticizing a newly(11 more words not shown)
- Dchallenging an explanation(14 more words not shown)
- Ecalling into question(20 more words not shown)
Reading the argument
The newspapers say paper is getting too expensive. The accountant says that explanation doesn't hold up once we account for inflation.
A higher price tag alone doesn't tell us whether newsprint has become more expensive relative to other things. The accountant says its inflation-adjusted cost is no higher than ten years ago and describes newsprint as cheap. That's the response to the industry's account of falling profits.
Then the accountant looks at the money coming in: fewer people are buying newspapers, and advertising is falling. If the papers are bringing in less revenue, that gives us a different place to look for their shrinking profits.
What we’re looking for
We're being asked how the argument proceeds. Put the two moves together: challenge the industry's explanation, then offer another explanation. The replacement has two parts—circulation and advertising—but both belong to the same move away from the cost-of-paper story.
Working the answers
- A
There is no analogy to reinterpret. An analogy would compare this situation with a different situation to help make a point. The accountant discusses the newspaper industry's costs and revenue directly.
- B
The inflation comparison does use economic information, which makes the beginning sound promising. But the accountant isn't testing whether a historically accepted way of doing something still works. The target is an explanation for falling profits. Questioning that explanation isn't the same as questioning the effectiveness of a business practice.
- C
What newly developed method? The passage doesn't introduce one, much less compare its results with those of a conventional method. It compares explanations for the industry's financial trouble.
- DCorrect
The phenomenon is falling profits. The first explanation is rising newsprint costs, which the accountant challenges using the inflation-adjusted price. The different explanation is falling circulation and advertising. This captures both the rejection and the proposed replacement.
- E
Explaining why profits are falling isn't justifying a practice. The accountant never argues that some action is acceptable, then applies that same justification to an obviously undesirable action. Those would be different argumentative moves from the ones we just followed.
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