CR: Often vs Most

[NMencia09]

this is from the CR Bible:

Mystery stories often feature a brilliant detective and teh detective's dull companion. Clues are presented in teh story, and the companion wrongly infers an inaccurate solution to the mystery using the same clues that the detective uses to deduce the correct solution. Thus, the author's strategy of including the dull companion gives readers a chance to solve the mystery while also diverting them from the correct solution.

Which one of the following is most strongly supported by the information above?

A) Most mystery stories feature a brilliant detective who solves the mystery presented in the story.
B) Mystery readers often solve the mystery in a story simply by spotting the mistakes in the reasoning of the detective's dull companion.

C) Some mystery stories give readers enough clues to infer the correct solution to the mystery.

D) The actions of the brilliant detective in a mystery story rarely divert readers from the actions of the detective's dull companion.

E) The detective's dull companion in a mystery story generally uncovers the misleading clues that divert readers from the mystery's correct solution.

Answer: C

The reasoning for why A is wrong is this:
The word "often" in in the first sentence is the key to this answer choice. "Often" means frequently, but frequently is not the same as "most". Had the stimulus said "More often than not", that would mean "most" and this answer would be correct.

Is this kind of thing really tested on the GMAT? it seems very nitpicky. I dont really see the distinction between "often" and "most" here. Suppose there are 100 mystery stories, 60 of which feature a brilliant detective. I guess the idea here is that "Often" could be 20 or 30 (etc.) stories, whereas to qualify as "Most" you need a majority (51?). Is "majority" the same as "most"? Any tips/help on how to spot these situations and avoid getting these wrong? I often find myself getting inference questions wrong for reasons such as this.

Thanks!

[tim]

"majority" means "most". "often" is far more vague. the GMAT often :) tests on this sort of thing, and you have to pay very close attention to the specific words they use in the problem..

[divineacclivity]

C: "Some mystery stories give readers enough clues to infer the correct solution to the mystery."
"enough clues" to infer correct solution - is nowhere mentioned in the question, so, sounded utterly wrong and that's why I took option B, which also didn't look perfect (by spotting mistakes - nowhere mentioned in the argument but still was logical) but weighed more than C :(

[tim]

"enough clues" is mentioned in the answer choice. even though it isn't mentioned in the argument, there are "enough clues" to infer that this is the case.. :)