Question

Community activist: If Morganville wants to keep its central shopping district healthy, it should prevent the opening of a huge SaveAll discount department store on the outskirts of Morganville. Records from other small towns show that whenever SaveAll has opened a store outside the central shopping district of a small town, within five years the town has experienced the bankruptcies of more than a quarter of the stores in the shopping district.
The answer to which of the following would be most useful for evaluating the community activist’s reasoning?
(A) Have community activists in other towns successfully campaigned against the opening of a SaveAll store on the outskirts of their towns?
(B) Do a large percentage of the residents of Morganville currently do almost all of their shopping at stores in Morganville?
(C) In towns with healthy central shopping districts, what proportion of the stores in those districts suffer bankruptcy during a typical five-year period?
(D) What proportion of the employees at the SaveAll store on the outskirts of Morganville will be drawn form Morganville?
(E) Do newly opened SaveAll stores ever lose money during their first five years of operation?

Answer 1

Answer: The best answer is C

Explanation:

C. In towns with healthy central shopping districts, what proportion of the stores in those districts suffer bankruptcy during a typical five-year period?

Supposing that roughly a quarter of stores in a HEALTHY central shopping district is being found out to have suffered bankruptcy during a typical five-year period. This would be an evidence to say that losing a quarter of the stores to bankruptcy is NOT a sign that a shopping district is "unhealthy". In that regards, the records from the other towns would simply show that, DESPITE having a SaveAll, the shopping districts maintained healthy bankruptcy rates.

So, the fact that a quarter of stores in Morganville's central shopping district will likely experience bankruptcy is no cause for alarm. This is what we would expect in ANY healthy central shopping district. Therefore, based on the evidence, there is no reason to expect that opening a Save All will negatively affect the health of the central shopping district.