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VerbalCritical Reasoning

Free GMAT Critical Reasoning Practice Question

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When the Harbor Markets grocery chain converted half of its checkout lanes to self-service kiosks, several loss-prevention consultants warned the company's board that the change would raise inventory shrinkage, since shoppers using kiosks can more easily fail to scan items. The conversion will push Harbor's shrinkage rate above the industry average. Yet during the eighteen months after the conversion, Harbor's shrinkage rate held steady. At the stores where kiosks were installed, the reduction in checkout staff freed funds that Harbor redirected to additional floor monitors, who deter theft throughout the sales area. Because the savings from staffing kiosks can be reinvested in this way, the board should not treat rising shrinkage as a reason to reverse the conversion.

In the argument, the two portions in boldface play which of the following roles?

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Answer & Explanation

Correct answer

A

Boldface role identification. First locate the main conclusion, then classify each boldface portion by the job it does relative to that conclusion.

The main conclusion is the unbolded final sentence: the board should not treat rising shrinkage as a reason to reverse the kiosk conversion. The argument is built to oppose the consultants' warning.

First boldface ("The conversion will push Harbor's shrinkage rate above the industry average") is the consultants' prediction, which the argument is trying to knock down. So its role is a prediction the argument seeks to discredit.

Second boldface (the reinvestment of staffing savings into floor monitors who deter theft) is the finding the argument supplies to account for the surprising fact that shrinkage held steady rather than spiking. It explains why the consultants' prediction did not come true. So its role is a finding offered to explain why that prediction was not borne out.

(A) names both roles correctly and is the credited answer.

Why the others fail: (B) calls the first boldface the conclusion, but the conclusion is unbolded and the first boldface is the opposed prediction. (C) says the argument endorses and confirms the prediction, which reverses the argument's actual stance, since it is arguing against the prediction. (D) treats the prediction as a conceded, valid objection, but the argument rejects it by citing steady shrinkage rather than admitting it. (E) gets the first role right but calls the second boldface the conclusion, when it is a piece of explanatory evidence and the real conclusion is unbolded.

The deciding move is reading the argument's stance toward the first boldface (opposition, not endorsement or concession) and then checking the full two-clause role description of every choice rather than stopping after a correct first clause.