#6 - Mario: I see that the only rug store in Glendale has

[Administrator]

Complete Question Explanation

Point at issue, cause and effect. The correct answer is (B).

Mario claims that the only rug store in Glendale closing is an indicator that there is little demand for rugs in Glendale. Renate claims that the store did not close due to lack of demand, and that the market for rugs in Glendale is wide open.

According to Mario, opening a rug business would not be advisable, since there is no demand for rugs. According to Renate, a rug business could be very profitable, because demand was not an issue for the last store and the market is now wide open.

Answer choice (A) Neither speaker addressed the quality of rugs at the store.

Answer choice (B) This is the correct answer. Mario believes this is a bad idea, Renate believes it is a good idea.

Answer choice (C) Both speakers seem to believe this is possible, they just have different takes on what the market is like.

Answer choice (D) Neither speaker discusses other store types.

Answer choice (E) Both speakers likely agree with this - Renate simply says that insufficient demand was not the issue for the rug store.

[mokkyukkyu]

Hi,

I was not sure about C, E, and B as well...for B at first I thought it is ? for both of them because they do not say directly bout determining the market I thin...(what is determining the market btw?

[Nikki Siclunov]

Hi mokkyukkyu,

Thanks for your question. However, I had difficulty understanding what you meant, so if you can elaborate a bit, that would be great! In particular, can you please provide a detailed breakdown of how you understood the argument for each speaker (Mario as well as Renate)? What is the conclusion reached by either speaker? What type of stem are we answering? How do you differentiate between correct and incorrect answers to Point at Issue questions? What evidence do you have that the speakers would disagree on the issues mentioned in (C) and (E)?

The more you tell us about your method of approach, the better we can help you figure it out.

Thanks!

[15veries]

I wonder what Renate's conclusion is...it seems implied. (wide open=good idea to open) otherwise, wide open can be just contextual info, saying the fact.

[ChicaRosa]

I was stuck between C and E and ended up choosing the wrong answer.

I thought it was E because Renate said that the closing of the store had little to do with the product it sold (in this case the rug) while Mario says the story closed because of little demand for rugs.

Is C correct because Mario says that the store closed because there was little demand for rugs while Renate claims that closing of the store allowed the marketing of rugs to be open?

Thanks!

[Adam Tyson]

Hey Chica and 15v, good to see you both again! Let me see if I can shed some light on this for you both.

Point at Issue questions like this one have a simple test that can really help - we call it the Agree/Disagree TestTM. In short, we want to find evidence in the stimulus (because this is in the same family of questions as Must Be True) that one of the people would say "that's true" and the other would say "that's false", or one would say "All" while the other says "Not All", or one says "Yes" while the other says "no", etc. We want to know, based on the text, that they disagree about the claim laid out in the answer, or they give opposing answers to a question in the answer.

Answer E talks about the possibility of a rug store closing because of insufficient demand, and Mario clearly agrees with that claim because he based his argument on that very thing. But what does Renate said about whether that is ever possible? Nothing! She says that's not what happened in this case. Might she say it's possible that could cause some other store to close? Sure, she might - the point is that, based on this text, we just can't know what she thinks.

Answer B is the best answer of the lot. We know what Mario thinks, because he tells us - he says avoid trying to sell rugs in Glendale. Now what would Renate say? That's not 100% clear, but it is strongly implied by the text, as 15v pointed out. Saying that the problem wasn't the product and now the market there is wide open lends a lot of support to the claim that she thinks opening a rug store there would be a good idea. There's apparently demand for the product, and no competition - sounds like a winner.

Can we be certain of this? I'd say no - I think it's possible that Renate would say you shouldn't open a rug store there because of other reasons aside from demand and competition. However, it's the best answer of the five we are presented, because at least we can make a good case, based again entirely on the text, that she thinks that's true.

Stick to the text and apply the test, and at the end of the day you have to pick the best answer even if it's not a perfect one.

Good luck guys! Go pick some winners!

[Adam Tyson]

Chica, just one more thing - I am assuming you meant B and not C, but if you were considering C then consider applying that test to it. It seems that both our speakers would agree that it's possible to determine demand (Mario says it's low and Renate says, or at least implies, it's not low), so that's not a point at issue but rather a point of agreement, a different question type.

Just wanted to clarify in case you hadn't made a typo there.

[ChicaRosa]

Chica, just one more thing - I am assuming you meant B and not C, but if you were considering C then consider applying that test to it. It seems that both our speakers would agree that it's possible to determine demand (Mario says it's low and Renate says, or at least implies, it's not low), so that's not a point at issue but rather a point of agreement, a different question type.

Just wanted to clarify in case you hadn't made a typo there.

Hi Adam!

Yes, I think I confused B for C. Your explanation of the problem was very helpful

[sarahk]

I was stuck between B and C but ultimately chose C because Mario clearly says that "there's clearly little demand for rugs in Glendale" whereas Renate says "the market for rugs in Glendale is now wide open". I interpreted this to mean that the market could be very large or it could be very small - open to all possibilities. Can someone please let me know where I went wrong in this interpretation?

Thanks!

Sarah

[Rachael Wilkenfeld]

Hi Sarah,

I think that by "open," Renate means that there is an opening for a rug store to move in. They both agree that the rug store closed, but the big disagreement is over why. Mario states that the closing shows there isn't a demand for rugs. Renate says that it wasn't about the rugs; the store closed for another reason. Thus there is now an opening for a new rug store to move in and serve the need, at least according to Renate. For answer choice (C), it isn't really clear if either of them think it is NOT possible to determine the size of the market. Mario says that it's small. That's why the store closed. Renate doesn't say, so we can't be certain of his answer. But he implies that it's large enough to support a rug store. Answer choice (C), which states just that it's possible to determine the size, isn't in dispute. Either they agree it's possible to determine, or we don't know enough about Renate. In either case, it's not a point of disagreement.

Answer choice (B) is a point of disagreement, however. Mario would say it's a bad idea to open a store there, because there's no market. Renate would say it's a good idea, because the market is currently more open because a rug store just closed.

Hope that helps!
Rachael