Section17-III-19

bigmouse

19. Train service suffers when a railroad combines commuter and freight service. By dividing its attention between its freight and commuter customers, a railroad serves neither particularly well. Therefore, if a railroad is going to be a successful business, then it must concentrate exclusively on one of these two markets.
For the argument to be logically correct, it must make which one of the following assumptions?
(A) Commuter and freight service have little in common with each other.
(B) The first priority of a railroad is to be a successful business.
(C) Unless a railroad serves its customers well, it will not be a successful business.
(D) If a railroad concentrates on commuter service, it will be a successful business.
(E) Railroad commuters rarely want freight service as well.
answer:C my choice :A

mindfree

Explained before.

Three points on this problem.

1. One thing you always need to remember in CR: try to only focus on the information provided in the argument. Common sense is needed sometimes but you should never make untenable assumptions.

Let me ask you, how did you get A? Your assumption might be that because the two services are different, the train service could not make the best out of its service...Whatever it is, the assumption should never be made.

2. Regarding assumption type of question, if you have read previous posts, you should know how to find it. If you put "not" in the right anwer, the argument will not hold. In another word, the assumption is a required condition.

3. You did not find out what the argument is: premises and conclusion. in assumption type of question, find the reasoning is particularly important, because the assumption always fills the "gap" in the reasoning.

Based on the points above, try again.