medium · GRE Verbal Reasoning

Because **sales of print books have grown for four consecutive years while e-reader sales have stagnated**, several publishing analysts have concluded that readers are abandoning digital reading. This inference is too hasty. Most digital reading now occurs on multipurpose phones and tablets, which do not register in e-reader sales figures, and library lending of e-books, which generates no sales at all, has doubled over the same period. The growth in print sales, moreover, is concentrated in gift-oriented categories such as cookbooks and illustrated editions. Hence **the sales figures are fully compatible with a reading public that increasingly reads digitally while buying print for display and gift-giving**.

In the argument above, the two portions in boldface play which of the following roles?

The first is evidence offered in support of the argument's main conclusion; the second is that main conclusion.
The first is the conclusion drawn by the publishing analysts; the second is the argument's objection to that conclusion.
The first is a finding the argument shows to be inaccurate; the second is the argument's main conclusion.
The first is a finding used to justify a conclusion the argument rejects; the second is the argument's main conclusion.
The first is an intermediate conclusion of the argument; the second is a recommendation the argument derives from it.

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