CR Strategy Guide (5th Ed)
Page 147, Chapter 5 (strengthen and weaken)

Perhaps my question is more SC-related... I have some trouble with the meaning of the conclusion. It says:

Donut Chain calculates that the cost of the advertisement and the free donuts will be more than recouped by the new business generated through the promotion.

when I read this for the first time, I mistakenly thought it says:
cost > recouped by new business
where "more" indicates "larger amount". So that means the plan is actually losing money.

However, when I re-read the question stem, I found it says:
the prediction that Donut Chain's promotion will increase the new store's profitability

Then I realized "more than" is bundled together, and it modifies the verb "recouped".

Realizing these two interpretations are polar opposite and the misinterpretation is unacceptable, I would like to ask:
What went wrong with me at first?
How could I, in my first read-through of future CR problems, avoid falling into this trap of misunderstanding?
Thanks for helping out.

I'm really sorry, but I'm not sure how helpful I'm going to be. Do you commonly misread CR problems, or just this one? Any other examples you can provide?

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Jamie Nelson
ManhattanGMAT Instructor

Hi Jamie,
Thanks for your reply. Not usual. Specific to this one... So I need not to worry as far as I understand this one?

Correct. It's more of an idiom that you need to learn for future reference than anything else. One other point:

cost > recouped by new business

In this example cost is a noun and recouped is a verb. So that's a sign you're not comparing the right things.

The cost was $100 (thing)

This cost was recouped (action)

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Joe Lucero
Manhattan GMAT Instructor

Oh I see. Thank you, Joe :)

You're welcome! :)

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Joe Lucero
Manhattan GMAT Instructor