Logical reasoning PrepTest 104 · Section 4 · Question 8

Question prompt

People always seem to Remaining source text redacted.
Why the credited answer is right

Credited answer: B

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

Argument or Facts

Facts

Valid or Flawed

NA

Question Type

Paradox Questions

Stimulus Summary

People: High prices = High quality
Counterexample: The best tea costs the same as lower-quality tea

Answer Anticipation

The stimulus here asks us to explain the counterexample, so we should start by figuring out what was expected and how the counterexample runs counter to it.
The expectation here is set in the first line - high prices are associated with high quality. As such, you’d expect that, for various products, higher quality goods command higher prices.
But the author brings up the counterexample of the tea market. There, the higher-quality teas are “no more expensive” than the lower-quality ones. In other words, high prices and high quality aren’t connected in the tea market!
So to explain what’s going on here, we need to know a reason that low-quality tea would be more expensive, or high-quality tea would be less expensive. Maybe high-quality tea requires a refined palate to enjoy, so people don’t buy it since they don’t enjoy it as much. Or the low-quality stuff has better marketing, thus driving up the price because of perceived quality.

Answer choices

  1. A
    Packing and advertising triple Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice A is not credited
    This answer applies to all teas, so it would triple the price of high- and low-quality teas. As such, it doesn’t explain why the low-quality tea is priced the same as the high-quality tea despite the different quality levels.

  2. B
    Most people buy low–quality Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice B matches the stem
    This answer brings up a relevant difference between the different teas (if most people buy low-quality stuff, then only a minority of people buy high-quality stuff). If demand for the low-quality tea is high, that would drive the price up, explaining how it’s the same price as the high-quality stuff.

  3. C
    All types of tea Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice C is not credited
    Similar to (A), this is an answer that applies to all teas, so it can’t explain how they end up at the same price despite the difference in quality.

  4. D
    Low–quality teas are generally Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice D is not credited
    If anything, being easier to obtain would suggest a lower price, as rare items tend to command higher prices.

  5. E
    The price of tea Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice E is not credited
    Yet another answer that doesn’t distinguish between low- and high-quality tea.

What this tests

Question analytics

Based on historical answer selection rates for this question.

Answer choice distribution

  1. A 16%
  2. B Credited 64%
  3. C 6%
  4. D 6%
  5. E 8%

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