PrepTest 146, Section 1, Question 6
Mario: I see that the only rug store(67 more words not shown)
The dialogue provides the most(11 more words not shown)
- Athe rug store(7 more words not shown)
- Bit is a(9 more words not shown)
- Cit is possible(8 more words not shown)
- Dany other stores(7 more words not shown)
- Erug stores can(7 more words not shown)
Reading the argument
A failed rug store doesn't tell us why it failed. Maybe Glendale residents don't want rugs. But maybe the owner ran the business badly, or customers bought their rugs at Target or IKEA instead. Mario jumps from this store's failure to a warning against selling rugs there at all.
Renate sees an opportunity: the old store is gone, so the market is wide open. That doesn't settle the matter either. What if there really isn't much demand? We don't have to decide which business forecast is right to understand their disagreement. Mario takes the closing as a reason to stay out of the rug business; Renate thinks the closing leaves room for someone else.
What we’re looking for
I'd predict a disagreement about why the store closed or whether a new rug business has prospects in Glendale. Let's look for a claim that their comments actually put them on opposite sides of.
Working the answers
- A
Neither person says the rugs were poor quality. Renate says the closing had little to do with the product, but she doesn't identify inferior rugs as the problem. A store might have excellent rugs and still fail because its opening hours are unreliable. We can't assign either speaker the specific quality judgment in A.
- BCorrect
Mario explicitly advises against opening a rug business in Glendale. Renate's response presents the newly open market as an opportunity instead. In this exchange, that supports reading her as favorable toward opening a rug store.
There is a small wording step from 'wide open' to 'a good idea': an open market doesn't guarantee a successful business. But the question asks which disagreement the dialogue most supports, and Renate is responding to Mario's advice by pointing out the opportunity. B captures the practical issue between them.
- C
Neither speaker says we can't determine the market for rugs. They offer different assessments of that market. Disagreeing about the answer doesn't mean they disagree about whether an answer can be found.
- D
They don't discuss other stores closing. Other businesses might have failed in Glendale, but we have no position from either speaker on that claim.
- E
Renate can agree that a rug store sometimes closes because demand is low while denying that this particular store closed for that reason. Mario's explanation of this closing and Renate's rejection of it don't establish a disagreement about what can happen to rug stores generally.
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