Restaurant Reviewer: In Response to Lagging Sales Based GMAT Critical Reasoning

Question: Restaurant reviewer: In response to lagging sales based on a reputation of poor quality, Lanzillotti’s Pizzeria launched a city-wide marketing campaign reintroducing its pizza as being made with organic ingredients and flavorful sauces, evidence of a new emphasis on quality pizza. But after visiting Lanzillotti’s last night I can only conclude that the reintroduction was simply empty advertising language, as my pizza tasted no better than the pizza I had eaten at Valvano’s earlier in the week.

Which of the following, if true, would most strengthen the reviewer’s conclusion?

1. Valvano’s Pizza is not known for using organic ingredients in its pizzas.
2. Other diners on the same evening also reported that Lanzillotti’s pizza was no better than Valvano’s.
3. Valvano’s Pizza is not considered among the highest-quality pizzas in town.
4. The reviewer ordered the most popular pizza that Lanzillotti’s offers.
5. Lanzillotti’s appetizers and desserts were not made with organic ingredients.

Answer: C
Explanation: On the GMAT's critical reasoning portion, analytical and critical thinking abilities are assessed. To answer clearly, a person must possess strong cognitive abilities.

A: Incorrect
It is an incorrect choice.Here we just learned that VP does not use organic ingredients on their pizzas. Having organic ingredients is one way to improve the quality of a pizza, but there are other ways to improve the quality of pizza even without organic ingredients. We cannot support the author's claim that the quality of LP pizza did not increase just because LP pizza was found to have a comparable flavor to that of VP pizza.

B: Incorrect
It is the wrong choice. Only the objective quality of the pizza is of relevance to us; in any event, all that it does is prove to us that L = V, which is something that has already been proven by the argument. This choice is eliminated.

C: Correct
It is the correct choice. C is right since the conclusion is weakened if the opposite is true. Moreover, if it can be demonstrated that the quality of VP pizzas is not among the greatest, we will certainly enhance our judgment. This is merely a linguistic trap that many may have fallen into with this query.

D: Incorrect
It is an incorrect answer. The popularity of the pizza has no bearing on its quality and is therefore out of the scope of our passage.

E: Incorrect
It is an incorrect answer. This choice is out of the question: pizza does not include appetizers and desserts.

The author's argument suffers from a flaw in logic due to the fact that he utilizes the statement "Lanzillotti's pizza is no better than Valvano's pizza" as evidence that Lanzillotti's pizza has not improved in quality. However, this is a broad statement; if Valvano's serves the best pizza in town, then Lanzillotti's has come a long way to catch up to it. Consequently, the correct answer is choice C because it rectifies the weakness in the previous argument. If Valvano's Pizza is not the pizza of the highest quality, then being on par with Valvano's Pizza is not necessarily an indication that the other pizza is of good quality either. C is the correct choice.

“Restaurant reviewer: In response to lagging sales based on a” – is a GMAT Critical question. To answer the question, a candidate can either find a piece of evidence that would weaken the argument or have logical flaws in the argument. GMAT critical reasoning tests the logical and analytical skills of the candidates. This topic requires candidates to find the argument's strengths and weaknesses or the logical flaw in the argument. The GMAT CR section contains 10 -13 GMAT critical reasoning questions out of 36 GMAT verbal questions.

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