"Over 80 percent of the respondents to a recent survey indicated a desire to reduce their intake of foods containing fats and cholesterol, and today low-fat products abound in many food stores. Since many of the food products currently marketed by Old Dairy Industries are high in fat and cholesterol, the company's sales are likely to diminish greatly and company profits will no doubt decrease. We therefore advise Old Dairy stockholders to sell their shares, and other investors not to purchase stock in this company."
Write a response in which you discuss what questions would need to be answered in order to decide whether the advice and the argument on which it is based are reasonable. Be sure to explain how the answers to these questions would help to evaluate the advice.
The argument is about recent survey where more than 80% people responded their desire to reduce their high-fat food intake. Old Dairy products are high in fats and cholesterol, so their share prices will be reduce. The advice is that stockholders should sell their shares and other investors not to purchase stock in this company. At first glance, arguments seems convincing but it contains some flaws. To evaluate correctly answers to some questions are required.
Firstly, the survey seems a strong evidence for this argument but it should address answers to some questions. Which age group were involved in this survey is not mentioned, as old people prefer to eat low-fat food. Do all kinds of people were involved in this survey or just people who are overweight were involved. The argument should also where survey was execute, do it is carried out at certain locations or it was carried throughout city. There is the possibility that people living in certain area are more careless about their health than other areas of the city. If this survey is conducted in correct manner and is valid then this may be very useful to evaluate the argument.
Additionally, As the Olds Dairy Industries market food products that are high in fat and cholesterol, Do Company may change their mind to market new low fat and cholesterol food products. If company diverts its mind then it has high possibility that their profit will not decrease. It may be the case that people of the certain city where survey was held desire to have low fat food, other areas still have demand for high-fat food products. If this is the case then even if they do not change mind to produce low fat food their profit will not decrease. Moreover, conclusion is based on the assumption that Old Dairy only sells food products in the food stores, it may be the case that they may be exporting to other nations.
In conclusion, we may say that answers to the questions about survey, food change policy and shares would help the evaluate the argument and advice is reasonable or not.
flaws:
In GRE/GMAT, we have to accept all data or evidence are true. It is important to find out loopholes behind surveys or studies. Loopholes mean that we accept all surveys told are true, but there are some conditions applied, for example:
It works for time A (10 years ago), but it doesn't mean it works for time B (nowadays).
It works for location A (a city, community, nation), but it doesn't mean it works for location B (another city, community, nation).
It works for people A (a manager), but it doesn't mean it works for people B (a worker).
It works for event A (one event, project... ), but it doesn't mean it works for event B (another event, project...).
for example in this essay, 'a recent survey indicated a desire to reduce their intake of foods containing fats and cholesterol,' we have to accept the survey is true no matter where, when or how the survey is carried out. However,
'a desire to reduce' is not equal to 'actually reduce'. People may pay attention to the taste.
'and today low-fat products abound in many food stores' doesn't mean people will purchase them.
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Attribute Value Ideal
Score: ? out of 6
Category: Poor Excellent
No. of Grammatical Errors: 0 2
No. of Spelling Errors: 0 2
No. of Sentences: 17 15
No. of Words: 355 350
No. of Characters: 1663 1500
No. of Different Words: 159 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.341 4.7
Average Word Length: 4.685 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.32 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 116 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 71 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 52 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 26 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 20.882 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 6.286 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.647 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.344 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.53 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.116 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 4 5