CAT Critical Reasoning Practice question with Solution 64

QUESTION
The only way that bookstores can profitably sell books at below-market prices is to get the books at a discount from publishers. Unless bookstores generate a high sales volume, however, they cannot get discounts from publishers. To generate such volume, bookstores must either cater to mass tastes or have exclusive access to a large specialized market, such as medical textbooks, or both.

Which one of the following can be properly inferred?

OPTIONS
[A]. If a bookstore receives discounts from publishers, it will profitably sell books at below-market prices.
[B]. A bookstore that caters to mass tastes or has exclusive access to a large specialized market will have a high sales volume.
[C]. A bookstore that profitably sells books at below-market prices gets discounts from publishers.
[D]. A bookstore that does not sell books at below market prices does not get discounts from publishers.
[E]. A bookstore that not only caters to mass tastes but also has exclusive access to a large specialized market cannot profitably sell books at below-market prices.
Answer: C
Explanation:

The inference comes right out of the first sentence: If the only way a bookstore can profitably sell books at below market prices is to get the books at a discount from publishers, then it certainly must be true that a bookstore that is profitably selling books at below market prices is getting discounts from publishers.

(A) and (B) both confuse necessity with sufficiency: For (A), it’s necessary to receive discounts to sell at below-market prices, but it’s not a guarantee. As for (B), a high volume relies on either exclusive access or a large specialized market (a necessary condition), but neither of these things necessarily guarantees (i.e., is sufficient) a high sales volume.

(D) The bookstore in this choice (one that doesn’t sell books at below-market prices) is entirely outside of the scope of the argument, so nothing can be inferred about it.

(E) No; it's quite possible that a bookstore with exclusive access to a large specialized market that also caters to mass tastes will be able to sell books at a discount.

Previous QuestionNext Question