pranjalshah wrote:
[url=https://gmatclub.com:443/forum/memberlist.php?mode=viewprofile&un=GMATNinja%5D%5Bb%5DGMATNinja%5B/b%5D%5B/url%5D , [url=https://gmatclub.com:443/forum/memberlist.php?mode=viewprofile&un=KarishmaB%5D%5Bb%5DKarishmaB%5B/b%5D%5B/url%5D
Conclusion: the lower the income, the higher the annual percentage rate at which the income is taxed.
I have well understood the question and chose A as the answer but I can't seem to understand why the amount has to be equal across income levels. For example, if a $100 income guy spent $100 on a product and on the other hand, a $100000 income guy spent $1000 on the same product, the $100 income guy is paying 7% of his total income in sales tax and the $100000 income guy is paying 0.07% of his total income in sales tax.
I mean, isn't our conclusion still holding without the added premise?
Edit: On further thought, I think the question doesn't require an assumption on which the argument depends. Rather, it asks for a premise that aids in drawing the conclusion.
Your edit note captures exactly what's going on here. The key was that you were interpreting this question as though the correct answer HAS to be true.
And a lot of this is the fault of the test prep industry, which basically created a bucket called "Assumption Questions," and then taught that in Assumption Questions the correct answer HAS to be true in order for the argument to hold. But we can see from the language of the question -- as you wisely noted -- that this isn't what's going onhere:
Quote:
The conclusion above would be properly drawn if which of the following were assumed as apremise?
So the question isn't, "does this thing HAVE to be true?" Rather it's,"IF this thing is true, could the conclusion be properly drawn?"
And if (A) is true, well, yeah, holding expenditures constant, higher incomes will lead to a lower percentage of that income going to sales tax.
All to say: nice job catching the subtlety in the question's language! And as the
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Statistics : Posted by GMATNinja • on 18 Jan 2010, 07:10 • Replies 19 • Views 56411
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