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Information and IdeasVery hardInference about what to check before scaling up

Information and Ideas practice question

A pharmacy chain found that stores which displayed a new sunscreen near the entrance sold three times as much of it as stores which kept it in the usual aisle. Before rolling out the entrance display everywhere, the chain's analysts noted that the entrance-display stores had been chosen by regional managers. The analysts most likely wanted to check whether ____

Which choice most logically completes the text?

  1. A. the managers had picked the stores that were already the strongest sellers of sunscreen.Correct
  2. B. the sunscreen's packaging was attractive to customers.
  3. C. customers in those regions enjoyed going to the beach.
  4. D. the usual aisle had been restocked during the trial.

Answer: A. the managers had picked the stores that were already the strongest sellers of sunscreen.

If managers chose stores that already sold a lot of sunscreen, the threefold difference could be the stores, not the display. That is what the note about manager choice points at.

Why the other answers are wrong

B. the sunscreen's packaging was attractive to customers.
Packaging was the same in all stores; it can't explain a difference between them.
C. customers in those regions enjoyed going to the beach.
Beach-going is a guess unconnected to the fact that managers chose the stores.
D. the usual aisle had been restocked during the trial.
Restocking doesn't bear on why the chosen stores differed.

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