1. A corporation's sales for two consecutive years are represented in a bar graph. Since the bar for the later year is twice as high as the one for the previous year, it follows that sales for the later year were double those for the previous year.

2. Forced to make cutbacks, the president of a manufacturing firm reduced certain costs as follows: advertising by 4 percent, transportation by 5 percent, materials by 2 percent, and employee benefits by 3 percent. The president thus succeeded in reducing total costs by 14 percent.

Criticize the above arguments in light of the material presented in this chapter.