During a single hour of a pledge drive for a public radio station, any

Hey All,

I got a request to weigh in on this one, but to be honest, I'm unsure where the confusion is. People keep saying that the answer goes against a written premise. It doesn't in the slightest:

During a single hour of a pledge drive for a public radio station, anyone making a pledge of a stated amount was given a free gift. Pledges were encouraged by the announcement that the retail cost of the gift was equal to the amount of the pledge. Yet, at the end of the hour, the total money raised from pledges accounted for a larger dollar amount than the amount organizers had paid for all the free gifts.

This is an "Explain the Discrepancy" question, so all we need to do is write it in our own words.

Discrepancy: Station gives away gift that retails for the same amount as associated pledge, yet station makes profit. How?

Explanation: Pretty obvious that the gifts were donated. This is how the majority of charity auctions are run.

A)The cost of postage was included in the total cost assigned to the gifts, making them seem more expensive to potential donors.
PROBLEM: This doesn't address the issue. Even if cost of postage is included, the station's outlay = pledges if they had to buy the gifts.

B)Organizers underestimated the amount of money that would be raised during the hour and were surprised by the actual total of pledges.
PROBLEM: Again, if they had to buy the gifts, outlay still = pledges.

C)Organizers overestimated the number of donors who would respond to the offer and were forced to offer gifts at half price when there were fewer pledges than expected.
PROBLEM: This wouldn't help at all. In fact, it looks like it would hurt the discrepancy.

D)Free gifts were donated by a sponsor, eliminating the need to subtract the cost of them from the total money raised through pledges.
ANSWER: People keep saying this goes against the premise. But the premise never says the gifts were bought. It says "total money raised from pledges accounted for a larger dollar amount than the amount organizers had paid for all the free gifts." That does not imply that they bought them at all. It just says they made more money than they paid. Even if the amount they paid was $0, this would remain a true premise. I see no contradiction. : )

E)More money was raised during this hour than during the previous three hours, driving down the average out-of-pocket cost of the free gifts.
PROBLEM: Same problem as B.

Hope that helps!

-t