Logical reasoning PrepTest 126 · Section 4 · Question 7

Incorrect. This answer is very tempting. And while the stimulus does talk about both quality and packaging, it never provides information that allows you to determine whether one is more important than the other. While the example provided shows a time when quality appears to be fine while packaging wasn't, resulting in a failure, it's possible that had the packaging been fine but the quality bad, the new drink would have failed just as badly. In short, the example is congruent with both being equally important, and thus this answer isn't supported.

Incorrect. We get an example of a product failing because the packaging created a false expectation, which is the inverse of this answer. As such, this answer is in the vein of an illegal negation and is thus incorrect. (In other words, the stimulus doesn't provide an example of this since it doesn't discuss accurate packaging/a commercial success, so it's unsupported.)

Incorrect. The stimulus provides an example of a different drink with almost identical packaging, so it can't support an answer about a different drink with different packaging.

Correct. Argument or Facts:
Argument

Valid or Flawed:
Flawed

Question Type:
Must Be True

Stimulus Summary:
Packaging is key to success. Example — A drink introduced a new version with old packaging, and customers didn't like it because they were expecting the old version.

Answer Anticipation:
Most Must Be True questions present a series of statements that can be combined in some way to derive an inference, or they present a mish—mash of ideas with one or two statements that carry enough logical force to allow an inference to be drawn from them.

Others present a situation and then have a correct answer that weakly generalizes from that example.

This question interestingly skirts the line between the two. While it does present a single situation (which would only allow a weak generalization to be drawn), that example is in service of a much broader and stronger statement (the opening line—packaging is vital" to commercial success). Since this stimulus has a bit of two common types of Must Be True questions, we should anticipate an answer that shares the qualities of a correct answer in both types.

We can build off of the generalization in the opening line to include some of the specifics of the example. There, the packaging issue was that it created an expectation that wasn't satisfied by the product. Bringing that in with the strength and general nature of the opening line, we can expect an answer along the lines of:
Packaging that creates an expectation that isn't met can result in something being a commercial failure.

Answer Explanation:
This answer reflects the example provided. The packaging of the new drink created an expectation the drink didn't meet, so despite positive reactions in test groups, it was a commercial failure. That suggests that avoiding the creation of such an expectation should be met if you don't want to fail—which is a necessary part of succeeding!

Key Takeaway:
If a stimulus in a Must Be True question explores a specific situation, the correct answer is usually a weak generalization—weak because that's all that can be supported with a single example. However, if the stimulus itself generalizes from that example, the answer can be stronger since we accept the generalization as true, as well.

Incorrect. This answer creates an expectation that an improved version of a product will sell better—there's just an exception where that doesn't happen (unless"). There's no indication in the stimulus, however, that that's the common/expected outcome—we only get an example of a "new, improved" product failing.