PrepTest 12 - Section 2 - Question 24 | Explanation & Discussion

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There are about 75 brands of microwave popcorn on the market; Support altogether, they account for a little over half of the money from sales of microwave food products. ██ █████ █████ ███████ ██ ███ ████ ██ ███ ██████████ ████████ ██ █████ ███████ ██ ███ ████ ███████████████ ███ ██ ███████ █████████ ███████ █████████ █████ ████ ████ █████ ██ ████ ██ ████████████ ████████ ███████ ██ ███ ██████████ ██ █████████ ████████ ████ ██████ ███ ███████ ██ ███ █ ████ █████ ███ ████ █ ██████ ██████████ ████████████

Argument Breakdown

The stimulus starts by mentioning how the 75 brands of microwave popcorn on the market are together responsible for more than half the revenue from sales of microwave food products. The stimulus then points out that the time it takes to pop corn in the microwave is three minutes, versus the seven minutes it takes to pop corn conventionally, yet microwave popcorn costs five times as much by weight as conventional popcorn. The stimulus concludes from these premises that, given the popularity of microwave popcorn, "many people are willing to pay a high price for just a little additional convenience."

24.

Which one of the following ███████████ ██ █████ █████ ████ ████ ████████ ███ ██████████ ██ ███ ████████

Question Type

Weaken

As mentioned in the analysis of the previous question, this argument is very flawed. Each part of the conclusion is a big jump away from the premises, in large part because the author is trying to draw a conclusion about people's behavior in an absolute sense when all the data in the premises is relative.

In other words, just because microwave popcorn is relatively more expensive than conventional popcorn doesn't mean people are necessarily paying a "high price" for it: if conventional popcorn were very cheap, say five cents per pound, then microwave popcorn might sell for twenty-five cents per pound, which doesn't seem like a "high price." Similarly, the conclusion relies on assumptions of what constitutes "a little additional convenience," and what constitutes "popularity" (we have no idea how big the microwave food market is!).

So any answer choice that exposes these gaps — for instance, by suggesting that microwave popcorn actually isn't that popular, that the "high price" is not actually that high, or that the additional convenience is actually a major benefit — would call the conclusion into question.

More than 50 ███████ ██ ███████ ██████████ ███ ████████████ ███████ ██████ ████ █████████ ████████

Incorrect. (A) is another relative data point that doesn't really help us. If the author was arguing that most popcorn purchasers are willing to pay the high price for the convenience of microwave popcorn, etc., then (A) would undermine that argument. But the argument is just that many people are willing to pay the high price of microwave popcorn in exchange for the added convenience. Knowing that most popcorn purchasers buy conventional popcorn doesn't undermine that claim. We don't know how many popcorn purchasers there are. There could still be "many" popcorn purchasers — potentially up to 49% of all of them — who do buy microwave popcorn for the reason given in the stimulus.

21%

Most people who ██████ █████████ ███████ ██ ██ ███████ ██ ██ ████ █████████ ████ ███████ ████ ██ ██████ ██████████████ ██ ████

Correct. (B) points out yet another flaw with the argument that we didn't discuss in the analysis above. Besides jumping from relative data to absolute conclusions, the author also makes a big assumption about people's motivations: that the convenience of microwave popcorn is the reason for people being willing to pay more for it. (B) strongly undermines that conclusion by suggesting that most people who prefer microwave popcorn do so not because of the convenience, but for another reason: microwave popcorn is less fattening than conventionally popped popcorn.

68%

The price of █████████ ███████ ████████ ███ █████████ ████ ████ ██ ████████ ███ ███████ ██ ███ ███████ █████████ ██ ███ ████████

Incorrect. Interestingly, if (B) weakens the argument by suggesting an alternative reason, besides convenience, that people are buying microwave popcorn, (C) almost seems to rule out an alternative explanation: microwave popcorn isn't necessarily of much higher quality than conventional popcorn, so the quality of the popcorn can't explain why people are willing to pay for it. This isn't to say that (C) necessarily strengthens the argument — maybe (C) is implying that, even though quality doesn't explain why people are buying microwave popcorn, catchy packaging is another factor to consider — but either way, (C) is too far removed from the motivations of people buying microwave popcorn to actually weaken the argument.

The ratio of ████████ ███████ ██ ██████ ███████ ██ █████████ ███ ████ ███████ ███████ ██ ██████ ██ █ █████████ ██ ██████████████ ██ ████

Incorrect. By telling us that microwave and conventional popcorn are comparable on this point, (D) actually strengthens the argument by ruling out a potential alternative explanation: that people prefer microwave popcorn because it pops more thoroughly.

Because microwave popcorn ████████ █████████ ███ █████████ ██ ████████████ ████████ █████████ ███████ ██████ ████ ████ ██ █████ ██████ ██ ████████████ ████████

Incorrect. The weight and volume of microwave versus conventional popcorn isn't relevant to the argument.

PrepTest 12 - Section 2 - Question 24

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