Public sources of information for an external information search include which of these?

a. sales personnel
b. government agencies advertisements
c. point-of-purchase
d. displays friends and relatives

The correct answer is letter "B": government agencies advertisements.

Explanation:

Public sources of information feed secondary market research which looks for obtaining valuable data from different pools of information without contributing to the gathering of the information directly. Usually, the information is provided by sources coming from government agencies or some of its extensions such as public libraries. Public sources of information are distributed in magazines, trade publications, newspapers or newsletters.

Thus, government agencies' advertisements fall under this category.

The best rebuttal for the counterclaim is:

D. Easy access to books helps students perform better, and schools spend less on tutoring.

Explanation:

The counterclaim we need to rebut makes two points:

- school libraries are unnecessary;

- school libraries are expensive.

Thus, we need to choose the rebuttal that will address both points. In that case, letter D seems to be the best option.

- school libraries are unnecessary → students perform better when they have easy access to books. Therefore, libraries are necessary and important.

- school libraries are expensive → if students perform better, schools spend less on tutoring. If less money is spent on tutoring, there is money left to maintain a library.