PT12.S2.Q23

PrepTest 12 - Section 2 - Question 23

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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."

Analysis and Strategy

You might have noticed that this is a very flawed argument. Virtually every part of the conclusion is a major jump away from the premises. 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!).

For this question, though, our job is not to point out the flaws. This is a Must Be True question, but unlike many Must Be True questions, it doesn't rely on conditional logic or statements that can clearly be chained into inferences. We are just given various statements and asked to assume that they are true. In a way, this makes our job easier: instead of getting distracted by the flawed logic, we can jump directly into the answer choices and compare them to the information given in the stimulus.

User Avatar Analysis by ArdaschirArguelles
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23.

If the statements in the ███████ ███ █████ █████ ███ ██ ███ █████████ ████ ████ ██ █████

a

No single brand ██ █████████ ███████ ████████ ███ █ █████ █████ ██ █████████ ████ ███████ ██████

b

There are more ██████ ██ █████████ ███████ ██ ███ ██████ ████ █████ ███ ██ ███ █████ █████████ ████ ████████

c

By volume, more █████████ ███████ ██ ████ ████ ██ ████████████ ████████

d

More money is █████ ██ █████████ ████ ████████ ████ ████ █████ ███████ ██ ████ ██ ████ ████ ██ █████████ ████ ████████ ████ ████ ██████ ██ █████

e

Of the total ██████ ██ █████████ ████ ████████ ██ ███ ███████ ████ ███ █████████ ███████ █████████

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