CAT Critical Reasoning Practice question with Solution 98

Without a 10 percent increase, Quore will go bankrupt. Since a 20 percent increase in productivity is every bit as attainable as a 10 percent increase (by the last sentence in the passage), we can conclude (E): If Quore can’t achieve a 20 percent increase, then it goes under. (E) is basically the contrapositive of the stimulus: If Quore can’t get a 20 percent increase, then it must be the case that it also can’t get a 10 percent increase. If Quore can’t get a 10 percent increase, then it goes bankrupt.

(A) We can’t say that it’s only the production structure that can prevent bankruptcy; we’re told that only an increase in productivity (which needn’t be due to the production structure alone) can do so.

(B) confuses necessary and sufficient conditions. The stimulus says that an increase of at least 10 percent is necessary for avoiding bankruptcy, not that such an increase will ensure that Quore doesn’t go bankrupt.

(C) Although the transformation of the market is what has threatened Quore with bankruptcy, for all we know many other factors could have likewise led to the identical result.

(D) concludes that Quore will boost productivity and avoid bankruptcy, but there’s no grounds for such optimism; the transformation of the market has necessitated, not brought about, an increase in productivity.