Tablets vs. Books

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Although a direct survey has yet to be produced, clearly the growing popularity of tablet computers in our country is leading to diminished levels relative to decades past of using that old-fashioned handheld device--that is, reading books. For example, one third of adults in our country now own tablet computers. And even as far back as eight years ago, before tablets had even hit the market, only about half of adults in our country answered affirmatively to a survey question that they happened to be reading a book or novel at the present time.

Each of following would be useful to determine in order to evaluate the argument EXCEPT

Whether the proportion of adults in our country in decades past currently reading a book or novel was more or less than half

Whether some factor or factors other than tablet computer usage might have led to lower the reading of books and novels

Whether the times of day and situations in which people use tablet computers are the same as those in which they previously read books or novels

Whether the surveyed populations in both studies accurately represent the populations of the country as a whole

Whether and in what percentage adults in our country currently happen to be reading a book or a novel entirely or partly on a cell phone

Review: Tablets vs. Books

Explanation

Reading the question: we see that the prompt is longish and there's the word "EXCEPT" in the question stem. "Except" questions require close evaluation of the answer choices. Going thoroughly at first will help us ultimately finish swiftly. By the way, in case you ever wondered why the EXCEPT and other words on test are in CAPS: there is no special meaning to the capitalization; the test-makers are just trying to help you read the question correctly.

Creating a filter: The word "clearly" hints that our conclusion lies in the first sentence. It's that tablet reading is supplanting book reading. Not a great argument, though. One piece of evidence is the proportion of tablet ownership, and the other is a prior proportion of folks currently reading a book. The two proportions are not connected in any way by the argument: that would be the clearest way to strengthen it... showing that people move from one category to another. It would also be nice to know that the proportion of book readers has decreased. It would also be nice to know that people are using their tablets for reading--not for other purposes or just letting them collect dust. We can use these expectations as our filter. Choices that match these expectations will not be the correct answer, since we have the word "except."

Applying the filter: Choice (A) describes something relevant to the argument, since the argument compares present reading levels to past levels. So (A) is not the answer. Choice (B) describes something useful to know--we could have coincidence without causation--so it is not the correct answer. Choice (C) matches one of our predictions--maybe tablet reading isn't really taking away from book reading. So (C) is out. Choice (D) concerns sample representativeness, an important point which pops up with some regularity on the GMAT. Choice (E) sounds relevant at first, but it has a defect: it mentions cell phones, not tablets. Reading on cell phones is relevant to reading, but it has not been connected to the present argument about whether tablet reading is supplanting book reading. The correct answer is (E).

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Tablets vs. Books