Self-study
This semester Professor Popkin will commute to Montreal by plane, leaving every Tuesday and returning to Toronto every Friday. ███ █████████ ███ ██████ █████ ██ ████████ ███ ███ ███ ██████████ ████ ███████ ████ ███████ ██ ███ █████ ███████ ███ ███████ ██ ███████ ██ ███ ████ ██████ ██ ███ ████████ ███ ██████████ ███████████ ████ ██████ ████ ███ ██████ ██ ████████ ███ ████ ██████ ███████ ██ ████████
Explain Questions Demand Something To Explain
Read properly, the stem says:
In the stimulus, there will be something notable and weird about the way Popkin arranges her flights. The correct answer will provide an explanation for why she structured her flights in such a specific, weird way.
In other words, the fact that this is an explain question tells us that something in the stimulus will demand explanation. Going into the stimulus with that framing makes catching the quirks in Popkin’s flight plans and anticipating the correct answer much more achievable.
Here’s a summary of the stimulus…
Popkin lives in Toronto. She’s gonna spend most of the work week in Montreal (Tu - Fri) and return home for the weekends (Sat - Mon). A sensible default option would be to buy a bunch of round-trip tickets that start and end in Toronto. But Popkin isn’t doing that. Instead, she’sjumping through some hoops to structure most of her tickets as round trips in the other direction – with Montreal as her “home base.”
…and an anticipation to bring into the answer choices:
The correct answer will provide some reason why Montreal makes a better “home base” than Toronto for round-trip tickets.
23.
Which one of the following, ██ █████ ████ █████ ██ ███████ █████████ ██████████ ████████████ ██ ███ ██████ █████ █████████ ███ ████████ ██ ███ ███████ ████ ████████████
a
Professor Popkin’s round-trip ███████ ███ █████ █████████ ██ ████ ████ ██ █████████ ██ ████ ██ █████ ███ ████████ █████ ██████████ ███████ ███ █████████ ██████ ███ ███ █████████ ███████
This provides a reason why Popkin would want to structure most of her flights as round-trips from Montreal to Toronto. She spends Saturday nights in Toronto, so she can save money by making Toronto her destination rather than her home base.
b
A ticket for █ ██████████ ██ █████ ███ █████████ ██████ ███ ███ █████████ ██████ ███ █████████ ██ ███████ ██████ ████ ████ █████████ ██████ ████ ████ █ ██████ ███ █ ██████████ ██ █████ ████ ███ █████████ ██ ████ ████ ███ █████
If true, this would be a downside of Popkin’s scheme, which involves
c
Professor Popkin will ██ ████████ ██ ██████ ██ ███ ███████████ ███████ ██ ███ █████ ██ ██ █████ ██████ █████ ███ ███ █████████ █ █████████ ██████ ██ ████████████
This consideration would apply equally well if Popkin simply bought a bunch of round-trip tickets to Montreal from Toronto. It doesn’t explain why she would take extra steps to ensure Montreal is the “home base” for her round-trip tickets.
d
If all Professor ██████████ ███████ ███ ████ ███ ██ ███ █████ ███ ████ ██ ████████ ███ █ █████████████████ █████████
This explains why Popkin is buying all her plane tickets at once, but it doesn’t explain the peculiar grouping scheme she’s using to ensure most of her round-trip flights start and end in Montreal instead of Toronto.
e
In order for █████████ ██████ ██ ███████ ███ ██████ ████████ ████████ ████ ██ ███ ███████████ ████ ██ ████ ███ ██ █████ █████ ████ ██ ███████ ██ ███ █████████ ███████
This explains why Popkin is buying her plane tickets early, but it doesn’t explain the peculiar grouping scheme she’s using to ensure most of her round-trip flights start and end in Montreal instead of Toronto.