PrepTest 73, Logical Reasoning 2, Question 22
Transcript
Question 22, when the test gives you an apparent discrepancy that it asks you to resolve, then you are doing a paradox question. The stimulus will contain something that doesn't seem to make any sense. And your job is to find an answer that makes it make sense. On the one hand, one thing is true. On the other hand, something else is true.
It doesn't seem like those two things should be able to be true at the same time. Correct answer will fix that. Of course, before you can resolve the paradox, you have to know what it is. Here the paradox is a framed trend. The first sentence tells us how things usually work.
Advertising tends to have a greater influence on consumer preferences regarding brands of yogurt, than it does on consumer preferences regarding brands of milk. So, advertising for yogurt is more likely to work than advertising for milk. Yet, since the LargeCo supermarket chain began advertising it's store brand products, sales of store brand milk increased more than sales of store brand yogurt.
So in general, it's easier to change people's minds about yogurt than milk but that didn't hold true for LargeCo. They're seeing more milk sales than they are seeing yogurt sales after they started advertising for them. The correct answer will explain how it could be that LargeCo's experience is different than the norm.
So let's go to the answers and see what we have to work with. Answer choice A, this actually makes it harder to understand. It gives us a reason that people like the yogurt, there's an increased demand at LargeCo stores for yogurt. So why aren't they selling more yogurt now? Why is milk outperforming yogurt?
It doesn't explain it. Answer choice B, this answer might seem tempting because it does get both milk and yogurt into the same answer choice. But it doesn't give us any reason why the ads aren't following the usual pattern. Usually, yogurt ads do better than milk ads. This just tells us something about the sort of person who goes to the store to buy milk.
They don't usually buy yogurt. It doesn't explain why the yogurt ads aren't doing anything so this is not our answer. Answer choice C, well this answer can't help us because it doesn't give us a reason why the yogurt is under performing. It just talks about dairy products in general and says people like LargeCo dairy products.
Okay, they like them but why do they suddenly like milk more than yogurt? C doesn't explain. Go to D. Now, D does give us something we can work with. If supermarkets in the entire nation have been experiencing a decrease in the sales of yogurt recently, well, maybe that's why LargeCo is having trouble.
It's not something that LargeCo did wrong. It's just that there's an extra factor that's affecting the sales of yogurt. And that explains why the advertising isn't working as well as it normally does. D fixes the paradox. Means E is wrong and the reason it's wrong is like A it makes it harder to understand.
This says that people tend to like store brands of yogurt, but they tend to go with whatever milk is just on sale. So why is it that the advertising isn't doing its normal job if yogurt is something they buy? E makes it worse, hence choice D was our answer
Read full transcriptIt doesn't seem like those two things should be able to be true at the same time. Correct answer will fix that. Of course, before you can resolve the paradox, you have to know what it is. Here the paradox is a framed trend. The first sentence tells us how things usually work.
Advertising tends to have a greater influence on consumer preferences regarding brands of yogurt, than it does on consumer preferences regarding brands of milk. So, advertising for yogurt is more likely to work than advertising for milk. Yet, since the LargeCo supermarket chain began advertising it's store brand products, sales of store brand milk increased more than sales of store brand yogurt.
So in general, it's easier to change people's minds about yogurt than milk but that didn't hold true for LargeCo. They're seeing more milk sales than they are seeing yogurt sales after they started advertising for them. The correct answer will explain how it could be that LargeCo's experience is different than the norm.
So let's go to the answers and see what we have to work with. Answer choice A, this actually makes it harder to understand. It gives us a reason that people like the yogurt, there's an increased demand at LargeCo stores for yogurt. So why aren't they selling more yogurt now? Why is milk outperforming yogurt?
It doesn't explain it. Answer choice B, this answer might seem tempting because it does get both milk and yogurt into the same answer choice. But it doesn't give us any reason why the ads aren't following the usual pattern. Usually, yogurt ads do better than milk ads. This just tells us something about the sort of person who goes to the store to buy milk.
They don't usually buy yogurt. It doesn't explain why the yogurt ads aren't doing anything so this is not our answer. Answer choice C, well this answer can't help us because it doesn't give us a reason why the yogurt is under performing. It just talks about dairy products in general and says people like LargeCo dairy products.
Okay, they like them but why do they suddenly like milk more than yogurt? C doesn't explain. Go to D. Now, D does give us something we can work with. If supermarkets in the entire nation have been experiencing a decrease in the sales of yogurt recently, well, maybe that's why LargeCo is having trouble.
It's not something that LargeCo did wrong. It's just that there's an extra factor that's affecting the sales of yogurt. And that explains why the advertising isn't working as well as it normally does. D fixes the paradox. Means E is wrong and the reason it's wrong is like A it makes it harder to understand.
This says that people tend to like store brands of yogurt, but they tend to go with whatever milk is just on sale. So why is it that the advertising isn't doing its normal job if yogurt is something they buy? E makes it worse, hence choice D was our answer
