Logical reasoning PrepTest 104 · Section 1 · Question 9

Question prompt

Sales manager: Last year Remaining source text redacted.
Why the credited answer is right

Credited answer: A

The notes below walk through why it fits the stem and how to eliminate the rest.

Argument or Facts

Argument/Argument

Valid or Flawed

Flawed/Flawed

Question Type

Cause & Effect / Must Be True Questions

Stimulus Summary

SM: Total meals sold went up last year compared to the year before, so people like our food.
A: Actually, per restaurant, we sold fewer meals, if you look at restaurants open both years, so people like our food less.

Answer Anticipation

Note that this question stem tells us that the answer is going to be based on the “sales figures” cited, so we can ignore the arguments made by the two speakers for this question!

Answer choices

  1. A
    The company opened at Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice A matches the stem
    This answer must be true. If sales per restaurant went down for those opened both years, but overall sales went up, there must be new restaurants to sell enough meals to make up for the decline in the other restaurants.

  2. B
    The company's meals are Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice B is not credited
    There’s no discussion of other restaurants, so this answer brings up an unwarranted comparison. Even if the restaurants that have been opened sold fewer meals, other restaurants could have seen their sales go down by even more!

  3. C
    The quality of the Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice C is not credited
    There’s no discussion of quality and how it relates to sales. After all, fast food restaurants sell a lot more food than Michelin-starred restaurants!

  4. D
    The prices of the Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice D is not credited
    While a change in pricing could explain the change in sales, it’s not the only potential explanation, so this answer doesn’t have to be true. The stimulus doesn’t even discuss revenue or profits!

  5. E
    The market share captured Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice E is not credited
    There’s no discussion of the overall market, or of the sales of other companies. In fact, we learn that the company sold significantly more meals last year than the year before - all things equal, that suggests an increase in market share.

What this tests

Question analytics

Based on historical answer selection rates for this question.

Answer choice distribution

  1. A Credited 77%
  2. B 4%
  3. C 4%
  4. D 9%
  5. E 6%

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