At WholeMart, a retail chain, items on sale can be returned for store credit but not for a refund of the purchase. All electronics (power tools, Plasma Television and Home appliances) are on sale along with selected kitchen fittings (cabinets, racks etc…). Considering these facts it must, therefore, follow that _________ .

At WholeMart, a retail chain, items on sale can be returned for store credit but not for a refund of the purchase. All electronics (power tools, Plasma Television and Home appliances) are on sale along with selected kitchen fittings (cabinets, racks etc…). Considering these facts it must, therefore, follow that _________ . 

Which of the following best completes the reasoning above?

A – any item that is not on sale cannot be returned for store credit.

B – some kitchen fittings are not returnable for store credit.

C – no electronic items are returnable for a cash refund.

D – None of the things that are returnable for a cash refund are kitchen fittings.

E – Any item that is not electronic or a kind of kitchen fitting is returnable for a cash refund.

OA : C

Explanation : The task here is to make an inference based on the facts provided. As with all inferences, let’s look at the evidence provided and evaluate the options. The evidence says that all discount items can be returned for store credit only; we also know that all electronics and some kitchen fittings are on discount. We do not know the policy, however, on the non-discounted items. Therefore, we cannot make an inference about those. 

A – we do not have data about items that are not on sale and therefore cannot reliably make an inference about this; Eliminate. 

B – While this is compelling, we must remember that we do not have data about the items that are not on sale. We know that items on sale can be returned only for store credit; does this mean that items not on sale can’t be returned? or that they can be returned only for cash? We have no idea since there is no data. We cannot make this inference. Eliminate. 

C – This is absolutely true. The statements that items on sale can be returned only for store credit and that all electronics are on sale provide the evidence that we need to make this conclusion reliably. 

D – This is also not valid because we have no data about the items not on sale, if they are eligible for cash refund (which we don’t have data on), then this statement will be proven wrong. Eliminate. E – Again, since we have no data about the return policy for items not on sale, we cannot make this inference.