Self-study
A new device uses the global positioning system to determine a cow's location and, when a cow strays outside of its pasture, makes noises in the cow's ears to steer it back to its home range. ██████████ ███ ██ ███ ██████ ██ █ ████ ████ ████ ██████ ██ ███ ████ █████████ ████ █████ █████ ██ ███████ ██████ ██ █████ █████████ ████ ██ ███████ ███ ████████ █████ ████████████ ████████ ████ ████████ ████ ████████ ███ ██████ ██ ███ ███████ ██████
"Surprising" Phenomenon
Why does the device’s maker think that ranchers will buy the device at its current price, even though it’s much more expensive to use this device on all the cattle in a herd than it is to use some other means of keeping cattle in their pasture?
Objective
The correct answer will be a hypothesis that explains a key benefit of this device that outweighs or reduces the overall cost of outfitting cattle with it.
21.
Which one of the following, ██ █████ ████ ███ ████ ██ ███████ ███ ██████████ ████ ██ ███ ████████ ██████
a
The price of ███ ██████ ████ ████ ████ ███████████ ██ ███ ████████ █████ ██ ████ ██ ███████ ██ ██ █████ ███████████
The device’s maker predicts that ranchers will buy the device at its current price, so any future price decrease is irrelevant. Thus, (A) doesn't provide a benefit of the device that outweighs or reduces its overall cost to explain why ranchers will purchase it at this price.
b
As they graze, ██████ ██ █ ████ ██████ ███ ████ ██ ███ ████ ███ ███████ ██ ███ █████
This highlights a key benefit of the device that reduces its overall cost and explains why ranchers will purchase it at the current price. The benefit is simply that ranchers only need to outfit a few leading cattle with the device, rather than outfitting the entire herd.
c
The device has ████ █████ ███ ██ █████ ███████████ ██████ ██ ███████
This does provide a benefit of the device, but not one that outweighs or reduces the overall cost of using it on a herd of cattle. Presumably there are other, cheaper means of keeping cattle in their pasture that also don’t cause stress. So what’s the benefit of this device?
d
The device has ████ █████ ██ ██ ██ █████████ ██ ██████ ██ ███████ ██████ ██ █████ █████████
If the device is as effective as fences, but fences are far less expensive, why will ranchers still purchase the device? We need a benefit of this device that outweighs or reduces its overall cost and causes ranchers to purchase it.
e
The device's maker ██████ ███████████ █████████ ██ ██████████ ███ ███ ██ █████
Like (A), the device’s maker predicts that ranchers will buy the device at its current price, so whether it is discounted for bulk purchases is not relevant. Thus, (E) doesn’t provide a benefit of the device that supports the device maker’s prediction.