Q2 - Accountant: The newspaper industry

[smiller]

Question Type:
Procedure

Stimulus Breakdown:
Opposing Point (newspaper industry's claim):
Newspapers' falling profits are due to the rising cost of newsprint.

Accountant's Premise:
When corrected for inflation, the cost of newsprint is not higher than it was 10 years ago, and in fact has been cheap for decades.

Accountant's Conclusion:
Decreases in circulation and advertising, are the true threats to newspapers' profitability, not increasing newsprint costs.


Answer Anticipation:
The accountant disputes the newspaper industry's premise that the cost of newsprint is rising, or more specifically, that it's rising to a degree that would make it the cause of falling profits.

Correct Answer:
(D)

Answer Choice Analysis:
(A) There is no "popular analogy" described in the stimulus.

(B) The accountant is questioning a causal claim, not the effectiveness of an approach.

(C) The accountant is criticizing a causal claim, not a newly developed method.

(D) This is the best answer. The accountant is challenging an explanation—rising newsprint costs—that has been given for the phenomenon of falling newspaper profits. The "different explanation" is the reduction in circulation and advertising.

(E) The accountant isn't questioning the justification for a practice, and is not showing how a justification can support an undesirable practice.

Takeaway/Pattern: For Procedure questions, understand the structure of the argument presented in the stimulus. Eliminate answer choices which describe something that isn't actually occurring in the argument.

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