Official Explanation

Argument Evaluation

This question asks us to weaken the argument's reasoning. The advertisement makes the following argument: because the salespeople at Comput-o-Mart are on salary rather than paid a commission for products they sell, the store's customers will not pay for computers that are more powerful than those that the customers need.

To weaken this reasoning, we need to drive a wedge between the given premises and the conclusion: we need to show that it is not necessarily true that, simply because salespeople do not have an incentive to sell more powerful computers, customers will not buy computers that exceed their own needs.

For example, consider a case where customers' computing needs are basic, but Comput-o-Mart sells only advanced computers. In this scenario, customers purchasing from Comput-o-Mart would almost certainly be paying for computing capabilities that they do not need.

A. The argument hinges on the fact that a customer may pay for computing power that he or she does not need. This statement simply notes that high computing power may in at least some cases not cost more than low computing power. In this case, if anything, it might be more likely that a customer would buy a computer more powerful than he or she needs. Even so, the statement is a general statement about computers rather than a statement specifically about those sold at Comput-o-Mart. We are not told whether Comput-o-Mart even sells any of these computers. If not, then this statement is irrelevant to the argument.

A. This statement suggests that the salespeople at Comput-o-Mart may be less attentive to customers than salespeople at Comput-o-Mart's competitors. That clearly does not give us a reason to think that a customer at Comput-o-Mart may end up paying for computing power that he or she does not need.

C. The argument discusses whether customers at Comput-o-Mart pay for computing power that they do not need. The costs of extended warranties are irrelevant to this discussion.

D. Again, this is irrelevant to the argument: Comput-o-Mart's hours, however limited, do not affect whether its customers pay for computing power that they do not need.

E. Correct. If Comput-o-Mart's customers require only basic computing and Comput-o-Mart sells only advanced computers, then it follows that Comput-o-Mart's customers are likely to pay for computing power that they do not need. That is, regardless of Comput-o-Mart's salespeople's payment structure (salary versus commission), if Comput-o-Mart sells only more advanced, more expensive models, then any customer at Comput-o-Mart who requires only basic computing would in fact be paying for unnecessary computing power.

The correct answer is E.