Critical Reasoning

I came across these two CR questions in the handouts given to me by my GMAT coaching centre. I do not understand the reasoning behind the correct answer choices and I haven't been provided with detailed explanations. I would be grateful if someone could explain the reasoning behind the answer choices. Thank you in advance.

1] Almost all textile shops in St.Benedict town have reported a sharp increase in sales of a particular design of coats worn by women - one that's totally different from the design a huge majority of women in the town have been wearing until recently. This shows that coats of the new fashion are a craze with the women in the town and we can expect a massive switchover to the new type shortly.

The argument above is properly drawn if the truth of which of the following is assured?
(A) Fashions change every now and then and women generally adopt the latest fashion.
(B) St. Benedict is a town where cultural changes occur very rapidly.
(C) The coats sold in the various shops of the town are meant to be used locally.
(D) The prices of coats of the new design are affordable for the women of the town.
(E) Whenever a new fashion enters the textile market, people discard the old fashion.

Correct Answer [spoiler](C)[/spoiler]

2] More than half of the firms employing U.S. labor do not strictly follow the nine to five, five day week schedule stipulated for labor. This is attributable to the sharp increase in the number of firms in the service sector and also the personnel in the service sector gradually outnumbering those in other sectors.

Which of the following, if true, could explain how the violation of the work hours stipulation has been due to the growth of the service sector?
(A) Most of the jobs in the service sector are related to leisure activities which people normally indulge in outside the nine to five schedule.
(B) The personnel employed in the service sector are payed much more than those in other sectors.
(C) The scope for a drastic increase in the number of jobs exists only in the service sector now.
(D) Persons employed in sectors other than service sector have more physical work to do and hence cannot work for more hours beyond the nine to five schedule
(E) Trade Unions in the country are not effectively voicing their protests against employees working beyond the nine-to-five daily work schedule.

Correct answer [spoiler](D)[/spoiler]

Hi shenoydevika,

Although I am no expert, I would like to attempt answering these questions and hence explaining the reasons for the correct option.

1. Almost all textile shops in St.Benedict town have reported a sharp increase in sales of a particular design of coats worn by women - one that's totally different from the design a huge majority of women in the town have been wearing until recently. This shows that coats of the new fashion are a craze with the women in the town and we can expect a massive switchover to the new type shortly.

Basically the question wants us a statement of Strength in support of "coats of the new fashion are a craze with the women in the town and we can expect a massive switchover to the new type shortly"

option A is a general statement about women, and cannot be the right answer
option B talks about "cultural changes" which is totally unrelated
option E can be discarded as well - this is an extreme statement

now option B and C can be little confusing. To be frank I chose option D.
But option D is not what the answer wants "if the truth of which of the following is assured". As a matter of fact, price is out of text - town if fashion freak, there is no mention about cost.

Hence the answer is option C.

*********

2. More than half of the firms employing U.S. labor do not strictly follow the nine to five, five day week schedule stipulated for labor. This is attributable to the sharp increase in the number of firms in the service sector and also the personnel in the service sector gradually outnumbering those in other sectors.

This one I got correctly instantly. Its simple. We want an explanation as to why this phenomenon happened.

If you start predicting a logical answer the following are the clues you look in the options given - either the pay is better (like over-time etc) or work is easier. Only then will this happen "personnel in the service sector gradually outnumbering those in other sectors"

Options A,C,E can be easily ruled out.

Now confusion is in B and D. So we refer to the text again. They have mentioned only regarding the work timings and not the pay. In fact pay is not even mentioned in the text.

So the answer is option D.

*********

Hope it helped. All the best.

Thank you Sakshinitt for your reply

Actually after taking a long break and looking at the first question again, I see the logic. The question first tells us that the shops have reported increased sales in the new coats. Then it says that this is an obvious indication that the local women love the coats and a massive switchover can be expected. The assumption here is that the increase in sales is due to local women buying the coats and not due to increased export of the coats or something similar. The only answer choice that reflects this is C.

But I'm still confused on the second one. I was swinging between B and D.

Experts? Help! Please???

Hey, Sakshinitt, Shenoydevika

Unfortunately I answered the second one incorrectly but logic of the second question is not completely clear for me. For me, it is difficult to rule out A.

The question of the argument "Which of the following, if true, could explain how the violation of the work hours stipulation has been due to the growth of the service sector?" does not ask about outnumbering. It simply asks how "growth" of the service leads to the fact that majority of the US companies stop following normal work schedule.

To my mind, the explanation should answer the question - "Why new service companies can't follow the normal schedule". Answer A explains this.

However, I don't understand stimulus - how "more than half of the firms" can be attributable to the high average number of employed people per firm.

>> If you start predicting a logical answer the following are the clues you look in the options given - either the pay is better (like over-time etc) or work is easier. Only then will this happen "personnel in the service sector gradually outnumbering those in other sectors"

It is too narrow logic. There are many different issues why most of people work in service industry. In fact, it is rather normal situation in post-industrial countries, most of production outsourced, so people simply can work only in service industry which is growing due to the globalisation processes.

Nevertheless, the main problem of D is that it explains why other industries follow normal schedule but it does not explain why service industry can not do the same.

Answer B could explain why people are ready to overwork or to work abnormal schedule.
But it neither explains the growth of service industry nor guarantees outnumbering.
Many people may prefer to spend time with family with to work such schedule.

Hey challenger,

I see how A makes sense. I had eliminated it the first time I attempted the question (I can't for the life of me remember why!)

But D is the OA and I just don't get how it works....

Experts? Help!!!

So all of us have got the first one correct but the answer choices of second one are disturbing.

What I understood -
-------------------------------
More than half of the firms employing U.S. labor do not strictly follow the nine to five, five day week schedule stipulated for labor.

For example an IT services company in US decides to start a call center. Now one group of people attend first shift. The 9-5 one which is conventionally in sync with US labor. The other shift say 5pm - 1am is not in accordance with conventional US labor.

This is attributable to the sharp increase in the number of firms in the service sector and also the personnel in the service sector gradually outnumbering those in other sectors.

Ok...so we might have more work in this sector - sharp increase in the number of firms in the service sector and also the personnel in the service sector gradually outnumbering those in other sectors.

Now we need to find a correlation between Violation of work hours AND Growth of service sector.

A. Leisure activities might explain the hours but does not explain the growth of this sector.
C. Strengthens the argument ut does not answer our question.
E. OOS - Out of scope

Now between B and D, I truly believe that B is the answer. More growth -> More pay -> people are expected to work more OR More growth -> More pay -> more job satisfaction -> people voluntarily work more.

D just says that people in other sectors CANNOT work more. What if they could. How would their more work and growth of their sector be related.

Like all my friends here, I request the Experts to comment.

Hey, shenoydevika

Could you change the initial subject of the post in order to get an attention from experts?
Something like "EXPERTS NEEDED!"

Done! Now, we wait....

I hate to say it -- but that second question is not a good question. I usually don't criticize other people's questions. I write questions myself and it can be tough.

This question starts off badly with such a confusingly untrue set up. Official GMAT questions are factually accurate and you can feel free to quote them. But there is no "stipulated work week" that made this one confusing from the start.

None of the answer choices help much. D is not much help because being tired does not mean that you could not start work at like 3PM or something instead of 9AM. Do you see what I mean? Physically demanding work might be done on the night shift as well as any other.

I am not convinced that there is a correct answer and my personal recommendation is that you not study this particular question.

for the first one i feel that E sud be the answer
the conclusion is abt the switchover of fashion .
and this is exactly E brings into light
what if whenever new fashion enters the market the people dont discard the old fashion and even keep that one and use it .in that case this so called switch over will not take place !!!

I was asked to come back on comment on the first question as well. This is a question that is written in the LSAT style. It's a question type that does not appear on the GMAT. If you look closely at the question stem you will see that it wants the conclusion to "be properly drawn." This is LSAT - speak for a valid argument and a conclusion that must be true.

This is a very high standard of proof. A GMAT strengthen question merely asks for you to make the conclusion "more likely" not to prove it true.

Unfortunately, the reported answer for this one - C - does not meet the standard of "properly drawn." This answer only strengthens the conclusion it does not Guarantee the conclusion. Do we know that the women are actually going to wear the coats? And it says a "sharp increase" in the number of coats sold. What does that mean? If the had only sold 1 coat in the past year and they now sell 3 that is a sharp increase right? But is that a fashion craze?

There is no correct answer to question 1. So it joins question 2 in the "do not study category."

Does everyone understand how this question stem is different and that this is not a regular strengthen question and is not even an assumption question?

Aditya you are correct that E shows some promise because at least this means that we can get the women to wear the coats - but we still do not know if sharp increase means anything.