16Hit1600
Information and IdeasHardInference from a puzzling pattern

Information and Ideas practice question

The town's two bookshops are on the same street, forty yards apart, and both have thrived for twenty years while every other bookshop within thirty miles has closed. Their owners say they send customers to each other daily. ____

Which choice most logically completes the text?

  1. A. The two shops seem to survive by drawing book buyers to the street together rather than by competing for them.Correct
  2. B. The two shops are secretly one business.
  3. C. Bookshops always do better in pairs.
  4. D. The other bookshops closed because of these two.

Answer: A. The two shops seem to survive by drawing book buyers to the street together rather than by competing for them.

Sending customers to each other: cooperation, not competition.

Why the other answers are wrong

B. The two shops are secretly one business.
Not suggested.
C. Bookshops always do better in pairs.
Too general for the evidence.
D. The other bookshops closed because of these two.
Thirty miles is too far for that.

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