Self-study
Support The price of a full-fare coach ticket from Toronto to Dallas on Breezeway Airlines is the same today as it was a year ago, if inflation is taken into account by calculating prices in constant dollars. ████████ █████ ██ ███████ ██ ███ █████████████████ █████ ███████ ████ █████████ █████ ███ ████████ ███████ ███ ████ ██ ███████ ███ █████████ ████████ ███████ █ ████ ███ ████ ████ ████████ ███████ ███ ████ ████ █████████ ████████ ██████████ ██ ████████ ██████ ███ ████ █████ ██ ████████ ███████ ███ █ █████████ █████████████████ █████ ██████ ████ ████ ███ █ ████ ████
Summary
People spend less, on average, on Toronto-to-Dallas tickets now than they did a year ago. This is because a year ago, a smaller fraction of these tickets were sold at a discount. And the price of full-fare tickets has remained constant.
Missing Connection
We know that the price for full-fare tickets remained constant, but what about discounted tickets? Maybe the discount was much more generous last year, when fewer people received it. (E.g., imagine that last year’s discounted tickets cost $50, but this year’s cost $1500.) If so, the overall amount of money people spent on tickets might have been lower last year.
Consequently, the author needs to assume that the price of discounted tickets has not increased to guarantee his conclusion.
20.
Which one of the following, ██ ████████ █████ █████ ███ ██████████ █████ ██ ██ ████████ ██████
a
A Toronto-to-Dallas full-fare █████ ██████ ██ █████████ ████████ ████████ ██████████████ ████ █ █████ █████ ██ ███████ █████ ████ ████ █ ██████ ████████ █ ████ ████
The conclusion is about cost, so the quality of service is irrelevant.
b
A Toronto-to-Dallas discount █████ ██████ ██ █████████ ████████ █████ █████ ███ ████ ██████ ██ ████████ ███████ █████ ██ ██ ███ █ ████ ████
This year, (fractionally) some of the customers who previously paid full-fare have switched to receiving a discount. If both prices are constant, people now generally spend less on tickets. We already knew full-fare was constant; (B) adds the missing piece, discount constancy.
c
All full-fare coach ███████ ██ █████████ ████████ ████ ███ ████ ██ ████████ ███████ ██ ████ ███ █ ████ ████
We already knew that Toronto-to-Dallas full-fare prices were constant, and that route is the subject of our conclusion. Whether prices for other routes have changed is irrelevant, and doesn’t resolve the gap (potential discount price changes) we identified.
d
The average number ██ █████ ██████████ ███ ██████ ████ █████████ ████████ ███████ ████ ███████ ██ ██████ █████ ██ ██████ ████ ███ ███████ ██████ ███ ██████ █ ████ ████
The conclusion is about the average price people pay for tickets; the total number of people paying for them doesn’t affect the average. (If a cup of coffee always costs $3, the average spent per cup is $3 whether 10 or 10,000 people buy coffee.)
e
The criteria that █████████ ████████ ████ ███ ██████████ ██████████ ██ ███ ████████ █████ ███████ ██ ███ █████████████████ █████ ███ █████████ █████ ████ ████ ████ █ ████ ████
The conclusion is about spending, and we already know the proportion of passengers with discounted tickets. So how the discounts are offered is irrelevant.