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Now is an excellent time to invest in the catering business. A survey conducted by Weddings magazine found that 70 percent of the magazine’s readers want a catered wedding reception. An analysis of the catering industry, however, shows that the current number of caterers can serve only 55 percent of the weddings likely to occur each year.


1. Which of the following, if true, reveals a weakness in the evidence cited above?
(A) Catering is a highly labor-intensive business.
( Caterers are not evenly distributed across the country.
(C) The number of weddings with catered receptions has been growing each year for the past five years.
(D) Readers of Weddings magazine are more likely than most people to want a catered reception.
(E) Weddings magazine includes both articles about catered receptions and articles about preparing food oneself for one’s wedding reception.

2.Which of the following, if true, would undermine the validity of the investment advice in the paragraph above?
(A) The average wedding reception involves between 50 and 100 guests.
( Approximately a quarter of all weddings take place without a reception.
(C) Approximately a quarter of all weddings and their associated receptions are paid for by the couples themselves.
(D) Only half of all catered wedding receptions include sit-down meals.
(E) Only half of those who say they want a catered wedding reception actually have one.

My answers
1st answer B
2nd answer : Confused between B / E...
will with B

Now is an excellent time to invest in the catering business. A survey conducted by Weddings magazine found that 70 percent of the magazine’s readers want a catered wedding reception. An analysis of the catering industry, however, shows that the current number of caterers can serve only 55 percent of the weddings likely to occur each year.


1. Which of the following, if true, reveals a weakness in the evidence cited above?
(A) Catering is a highly labor-intensive business.
(b) Caterers are not evenly distributed across the country.
(C) The number of weddings with catered receptions has been growing each year for the past five years.
(D) Readers of Weddings magazine are more likely than most people to want a catered reception.
(E) Weddings magazine includes both articles about catered receptions and articles about preparing food oneself for one’s wedding reception.

Solution:


Lets solve the first CR diagrammatically,

3) Now is an excellent time to invest in the catering business. - Conclusion
1) A survey conducted by Weddings magazine found that 70 percent of the magazine’s readers want a catered wedding reception.-Premise 1
2) Analysis of catering industry -current number of caterers can serve only 55 percent of the weddings likely to occur each year. - Premise 2

The argument structure is that since there is more demand but less supply, hence invest in the business. But the demand is being found out by a survey conducted amongst readers of a particular magazine while the supply figure is taken from the real catering industry.

The boundary word 'only' is underlined.

I believe its option (C).
Lets see options one by one:

1) Option A: Nothing stated about the intensity of labor needed for the business in the argument structure. Out of scope.

2) Option (b) : Again out of scope, The analysis of the catering industry is as a whole. This information does not harm the conclusion. The spread of caterers is irrelevant for the argument. Even if the caterers are unevenly spread across the country, we are not sure abt the spread of the catered wedding reception. It might happen that couples travel all the way from Mid and Southern coast of America to the sunny West coast to get married. Thats why the majority of wedding caterers are in West coast than in any other parts of the country. Or probably the number of weddings in central US is more than any other parts of the country. But, it might happen that being conservative, the people of central US tend to shun glitzy weddings and instead cook their own wedding food for a small gathering of people.
My point is that the information of uneven distribution of caterers should not affect the conclusion.

3) Option (D): Out of scope. Comparison is between readers of a particular magazine and most people as a whole. How many is 'most' is undefined. No evidence given on how many people read the magazine and the total number of people in the country.

4) Similarly for option (E)

Coming to option (C). As the number of weddings with catered receptions is growing, so is the ability of catering industry to serve them is growing at the same pace.

Also, the statement "current number of caterers can serve only 55 percent of the weddings likely to occur each year" assumes that all the weddings that occur each year require caterers to arrange for the reception, while only 55 % of them can be served by the caterers.
If the number of catered receptions have been growing for the past five years, then the number of weddings also are increasing and so is the absolute number. Hence the business of catered reception is actually doing well contrary to the initial assumption.

Hence option (C). Whats the OA?

2.Which of the following, if true, would undermine the validity of the investment advice in the paragraph above?
(A) The average wedding reception involves between 50 and 100 guests.
(b) Approximately a quarter of all weddings take place without a reception.
(C) Approximately a quarter of all weddings and their associated receptions are paid for by the couples themselves.
(D) Only half of all catered wedding receptions include sit-down meals.
(E) Only half of those who say they want a catered wedding reception actually have one.

Solution:

I agree with Akshay. The option is B.
The statement says that approx 75% of all weddings are without reception. Hence there is a scope of catering for only the rest of 25% of weddings. But the main argument says that catering industry has the capacity to serve 55% of all likely weddings in a year. So there is a glut of supply but hardly any demand. This is in contrary to the situation in the main argument.

Hence option B.

Its not option (E) because the number of people dilly-dallying on their decision to cater wedding reception is unknown and hence out of scope for the argument.

Again, whats the OA?

Cheers,
Rahul.

Answers are :

1) D

2) E

Guess have to start looking at other ways to solve CR. My way is not working!!