Logical reasoning PrepTest 112 · Section 3 · Question 22

Question prompt

The retail price of Remaining source text redacted.
Why the credited answer is right

Credited answer: E

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

Argument or Facts

Argument

Valid or Flawed

Flawed

Question Type

Strengthen with Necessary Premise Questions

Stimulus Summary

Phenomenon - Decaf coffee is much more expensive than regular coffee
Context - The decaffeinating process is easy and cheap
Conclusion/Explanation - Costs of providing decaf can’t account for the difference in price

Answer Anticipation

This argument has a common pattern (Phenomenon/Explanation) and a common type of logic (Comparative), so let’s see how they come into play here.
The argument is an attempt to explain a phenomenon - decaf coffee is more expensive than regular coffee. However, the conclusion isn’t an explanation of why this is the case - rather, it rules out an explanation for it. Namely, it rules out the explanation that the costs of getting decaf to consumers isn’t why it costs more.
What does it use to back this up? It talks about the costs associated with the decaffeinating process - they’re pretty cheap. So this process can’t, in fact, account for the “considerably higher” cost of decaf compared to regular coffee.
However, whenever we’re dealing with a phenomenon/explanation passage, we should always consider alternative explanations. Since this argument concludes that a specific explanation isn’t the real one, we should consider other factors in that specific explanation that might make it the true explanation.
Here, there’s no indication that this is the only potential difference in relative cost between providing decaf to consumers and providing regular coffee. It’s possible that there are other costs associated with decaf coffee that drive the price up. Maybe only certain expensive beans can go through the process, so the raw materials are more costly. Maybe decaf coffee needs to be packaged in special packaging because it goes bad faster. The argument assumes that there aren’t other costs in providing decaf to consumers that are higher than regular coffee outside of the decaffeination process. The correct answer, therefore, will directly establish this, or it will rule out a single one of these costs as being higher.

Answer choices

  1. A
    Processing regular coffee costs Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice A is not credited
    This answer might be tempting because it seems as if it’s “balancing out” the small costs of decaffeinating coffee. However, first, this answer doesn’t establish the relative costs of decaffeination vs. processing. Second, this doesn’t need to be the one specific cost that “balances” things out. And third, there doesn’t even need to be a balancing of costs - as long as the difference in cost of supplying decaf is not at the same level as the difference in the cost charged to consumers, then the argument can still hold together.
  2. B
    Price differences between products Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice B is not credited
    Non-production costs generally accounting for differences in pricing doesn’t need to be true for it to be true in this one specific case. Additionally, production costs aren’t the same as the costs of providing decaffeinated coffee to consumers - for instance, shipping costs could factor in.
  3. C
    There is little competition Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice C is not credited
    While there being little competition might be one non-cost explanation for the high price of decaf relative to normal coffee, it’s not the only one, so this explanation doesn’t have to be true for the argument to hold.
  4. D
    Retail coffee–sellers do not Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice D is not credited
    If anything, this would suggest that the sellers don’t want to charge more for decaf coffee. However, that coffee is sold for more than regular coffee, so it’s not clear what this answer has to do with the argument.
  5. E
    The beans used for Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice E matches the stem
    This answer rules out another potential cost involved in providing the decaf coffee vs. regular coffee to consumers that might account for the difference in retail cost, so it matches up with our anticipation. If the beans used for decaf coffee do cost more before processing than regular beans, then those costs (which would be involved in the process of providing decaf to consumers) might account for the higher retail price, thus undermining the argument. This answer is therefore correct.

What this tests

Question analytics

Based on historical answer selection rates for this question.

Answer choice distribution

  1. A 4%
  2. B 12%
  3. C 1%
  4. D 2%
  5. E Credited 80%

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