During the early 2000s, most major retailers operated under traditional brick-and-mortar business models with limited online presence. When Amazon beg...
GMAT Craft and Structure : (Structure) Questions
During the early 2000s, most major retailers operated under traditional brick-and-mortar business models with limited online presence. When Amazon began expanding beyond books into general retail, CEO Jeff Bezos made the controversial decision to prioritize long-term market share over short-term profitability. This strategy involved selling products at break-even prices and investing heavily in distribution infrastructure, which many analysts initially criticized as financially reckless.
Which choice best describes the function of the underlined sentence in the text as a whole?
It presents the main argument that the passage seeks to challenge.
It describes a specific business technique that Amazon pioneered.
It provides necessary context for understanding Amazon's strategic approach.
It explains why Amazon's decision was more successful than competitors' approaches.
Step 1: Decode and Map the Passage
Part A: Create Passage Analysis Table
| Text from Passage | Analysis |
|---|---|
| 'During the early 2000s, most major retailers operated under traditional brick-and-mortar business models with limited online presence.' |
|
| 'When Amazon began expanding beyond books into general retail, CEO Jeff Bezos made the controversial decision to prioritize long-term market share over short-term profitability.' |
|
| 'This strategy involved selling products at break-even prices and investing heavily in distribution infrastructure, which many analysts initially criticized as financially reckless.' |
|
Part B: Provide Passage Architecture & Core Elements
Main Point: Amazon's controversial decision to prioritize long-term market share over short-term profits involved specific tactics that initially drew criticism from analysts.
Argument Flow: The passage moves from establishing the traditional retail context of the early 2000s, to introducing Amazon's unconventional strategic decision, to providing the concrete details of what that strategy actually looked like in practice.
Step 2: Interpret the Question Precisely
This is a fill-in-the-blank question asking us to choose the best logical connector. The answer must create the right relationship between what comes before and after the blank.
Step 3: Prethink the Answer
- The underlined sentence comes right after we learn about Bezos's 'controversial decision'
- At that point, we know he chose long-term market share over short-term profitability, but we don't know what that actually looked like in practice
- The underlined sentence fills in those specifics - it tells us exactly what the strategy involved (break-even pricing and infrastructure investment) and reinforces why it was controversial (analyst criticism)
- The sentence is essentially unpacking and clarifying what the previous sentence introduced
It presents the main argument that the passage seeks to challenge.
- This choice suggests the sentence presents an argument the passage wants to challenge
- The passage doesn't challenge this strategy - it's simply describing what Amazon did neutrally
It describes a specific business technique that Amazon pioneered.
- Claims the sentence describes a technique Amazon pioneered
- The sentence describes Amazon's specific strategy but doesn't claim they invented these approaches
It provides necessary context for understanding Amazon's strategic approach.
- The sentence provides the specific details about what Bezos's 'controversial decision' actually involved
- Without these details, we'd only know he prioritized long-term market share but not how
- This context is necessary for understanding what made the strategic approach controversial
It explains why Amazon's decision was more successful than competitors' approaches.
- The sentence doesn't compare Amazon's success to competitors
- It focuses on describing the strategy itself and analyst reactions, not competitive outcomes