Also it asks "John and Mary". What if John read more than others and Mary read less? Collectively, do they read more or less than most people? Who knows?

What if Mary discourages drinking but John encourages it? What if John is bigger than Mary and is like "shut up bitch!" while buying the alcohol? Collectively, we don't know what the net result is.

And is the word "read" present or past tense? What if they used to read more than others but now they read (present) less? What if wherever they were, others read more than they did? Then they didn't read more than others.

And the alcohol answers are past tense. Who knows what they used to do?

They might both merely work at the airport, and just bought these items before leaving work. It doesn't say they vacationed.

obviously they bought everything at a duty free shop and are admiring their frugality imo

Pretty much any conclusion that leads you to an answer other than "D" for either question is going to involve things that were not in the questions.

My first instinctive reaction was D and A.

People who don't like reading, don't buy books illustrated or otherwise. The fact that the present they chose specifically for themselves is something that is dear to their heart and they are now admiring it suggests that they like books. Most people who like books like reading.

I guess the test is supposed to have this effect but I just don't see any other logical answers than D and A and I'm sure plenty of others look at my view and say WTF?

It's easily "not enough info to say" for both. Of the *remaining* choices, it's obviously more likely they encourage drinking and read more than average. The clues given should only add up to a tiny amount of certitude for any conclusion.

So, yay--I can say with 2% confidence they like drinking, compared to 1.2% confidence they don't. Still shouldn't be anywhere near having an opinion.

Yes, but you would never ask these questions, either. Think about what the type of person who asks this question would be looking for.

Actually these assessments are pretty standard and are supposed to indicate your reading comprehension as well as a bunch of other stuff... Is your job related to advertising OP?

Stop assuming so much information (you know that cliche saying about the word "assume")

If you approach the question in a quantitative manner, the obvious answers are D and D.

Other answers aren't necessarily wrong, it just means you think differently than others/me.

You should probably explain the cliche and not assume that we know it.

when you assume you make an "ass" out of "u" and "me"

No, because John's boss specifically asked for alcohol. Whether or not Mary/John approve of alcohol, they may have felt it necessary to buy the scotch (to not risk John's relationship with his boss).

In the case of the book, they specifically bought it for themselves, and as such we might be able to make logical deductions that we can't make about the alcohol.

D, D

Makes you assertive in knowing that even though these questions seem too obvious to be D and D, you're just that sure that withholding judgement is the only reasonable course of action because that's the only logical answer you can make given the information. How badly did you want to not pick "can't tell" again after the first one? I was looking for any excuse to change it up, and it looks like everyone else was too.

This is probably just to weed out the people that have non-D answers for both questions though, since they are most certainly dishonest bull****ters and very stupid people.

I reject the notion that me making a stupid assumption makes an ass out of anyone other than me.

No. It would be a position at a staffing agency. A headhunter basically.