Transportation expenses accounted for a large portion of the total dol

Solution
Passage Analysis


Transportation expenses accounted for a large portion
Expenses for transport formed a large portion

of the total dollar amount spent on trips for pleasure by residents of the United States in 1997
of the total amount (in dollars) that was spent on trips for pleasure by the U.S. residents in 1997.

, and about half of the total dollar amount spent on the transportation was airfare.
Almost half of the total amount of money spent on transportation was spent on airfare.

However, the large majority of United States residents who took trips for pleasure in 1997
But, a large majority of the U.S residents (who took trips for pleasure in 1997)

did not travel by airplane but used other means of transportation.
did not travel by airplane. This large majority used some other modes of transportation.

Gist of the passage

• We are talking about the residents of the U.S who took pleasure-trips in 1997
• They used different modes of transportation to travel
• Airplane was one of them
• It was found that a large portion of their total dollar spending on the trip, was on transportation
• And almost a half of this expenditure on transportation was on airfare.
• This was inconsistent with the fact that a large majority ( a number much higher than 50 percent) of these residents of the U.S (who took pleasure-trips in 1997) did not travel by airplane.
• They used other modes of transportation.

Question stem analysis

If the statements above are true, which of the following must also be true about United States residents who took trips for pleasure in 1997? 

 If the information given in the passage is absolutely true, then which of the options contains information about United States residents (who took trips for pleasure in 1997) that is also true?

Answer Choice Analysis

A
Understand the choice

This option tells us the reason why the residents who traveled by plane did so. They took the plane because the airfare to their destination was lower than the cost of any other available mode of transportation.

Analyze in the context of the passage and the question stem
The passage tells us two things relevant to this option

A large majority (a number much higher than just 50 percent) of the travelers did not travel by airfare
Almost half of the transportation cost was for airfare
Based on this can we deduce the reasons why some travelers chose to travel by air while a large majority did not? No, we cannot.

Hence, we cannot say that this information is 100% true.

B
Understand the choice

This option gives us another reason behind why the travelers traveled by airplane. It says most of those who chose to travel by airplane did so because no other means of transportation was available to their choice of destination.

Analyze in the context of the passage and the question stem

Once again, we do not know what other modes of transportation are there. We do not know anything about their choice of destination. In fact, we just know that

A large portion of travel costs was on transportation
Almost half of the transportation cost was for airfare
A large majority (a number much higher than just 50 percent) of the travelers did not travel by airfare
Hence, we cannot tell with 100% surety that this answer choice contains information that must be true.

C
Understand the choice

This option means that for every mile traveled by airplane, people who traveled by air had to spend more on transportation to their destination. The others who traveled by other modes of transportation did not spend as much per mile when they traveled to their destination.

Analyze in the context of the passage and the question stem

The passage does not give us any information about the number of miles traveled by those who traveled by air and by those who did not. In order to conclude this option, we need to know the distance traveled by air, the number of people who did so, and the total cost incurred by them on airfare.

Hence, we cannot conclude this option.

D
Understand the choice

This option says overall (not all but on average), the people who did not travel by airplane had lower average transportation costs than the people who traveled by airplanes.

Analyze in the context of the passage and the question stem

We know that that

A large portion of traveling costs was on transportation
Almost half of the transportation cost was for airfare
A large majority (a number much higher than just 50 percent) of the travelers did not travel by airfare
 So, let us take any high percentage to represent a large majority, say 80% (we can take any high percentage 75% or 85%, etc.)

Then what we are saying is 80% of the people traveled by other means of transportation and 20% traveled by airplane. Since almost half of the transportation cost was on airfare and the other half on other means of transport, we can say that

80% of people spent 50% of the transportation cost on other means of transportation (or 80% of people contributing to 50% of the cost)
20% of people spent 50% of the transportation cost on airfare (or 20% people contributing to 50% of the cost)
Clearly, the first category will give rise to lower average transportation expenses than the second one.

Hence, this option must be true as per the information given in the passage.

E
Understand the choice

This option says two things. It means people who traveled by airplane also used other means of transportation. And, on average, they spent equally on airfare and other means of transportation.

Analyze in the context of the passage and the question stem

The primary problem with this option is that it concludes that people who traveled by airplane also traveled by other means of transportation. Now as per the passage we clearly know that there is a category of people who did not travel at all by airplane. But whether the category of people who did travel by airplane used or did not use other means of transportation is nowhere implied in the passage.

Hence, this is not the right answer choice as it cannot be concluded logically from the passage.

Transportation expenses accounted for a large portion of the total dollar amount spent on trips for pleasure by residents of the United States in 1997, and about half of the total dollar amount spent on the transportation was airfare. However, the large majority of United States residents who took trips for pleasure in 1997 did not travel by airplane but used other means of transportation.

If the statements above are true, which of the following must also be true about United States residents who took trips for pleasure in 1997?


(A) Most of those who traveled by airplane did so because the airfare to their destination was lower than the cost of other available means of transportation.

(B) Most of those who traveled by airplane did so because other means of transportation to their destinations were unavailable.

(C) Per mile traveled, those who traveled by airplane tended to spend more on transportation to their destination than did those who used other means of transportation.

(D) Overall, people who did not travel by airplane had lower average transportation expenses than people who did.

(E) Those who traveled by airplane spent about as much, on average, on other means of transportation as they did on airfare.

Let’s look at the info provided

Transportation expenses accounted for a large portion of the total dollar amount spent on trips s for pleasure by residents of the United States in 1997
about half of the total dollar amount spent on transportation was airfare
However, the large majority of United States residents who took trips for pleasure in 1997 did not travel by airplane but used other means of transportation.

What can we infer from the above stimulus?

(A) Most of those who traveled by airplane did so because the airfare to their destination was lower than the cost of other available means of transportation.

How do we know about this? We do not know why they chose to travel by airplane. Eliminate


(B) Most of those who traveled by airplane did so because other means of transportation to their destinations were unavailable.

Same as A. We do not know why they chose to travel by airplane. Eliminate

(C) Per mile traveled, those who traveled by airplane tended to spend more on transportation to their destination than did those who used other means of transportation.

We know that the overall transportation charge was more. But to infer that they spent more per mile is extreme. Eliminate

(D) Overall, people who did not travel by airplane had lower average transportation expenses than people who did.

- half of the total dollar amount spent on transportation was airfare
- the large majority of United States residents who took trips for pleasure in 1997 did not travel by airplane but used other means of transportation.

From this, we can infer that people who did not travel by airplane had lower average transportation expenses than people who did.

(E) Those who traveled by airplane spent about as much, on average, on other means of transportation as they did on airfare.

We don’t how much they spent on other means of transportation. Eliminate

Vishnupriya
CrackVerbal Prep Team

Assume that the total US transportation expense is $100. Now the questions says, a large portion, lets say $60 was spent on trips for pleasure by residents of the United States and about half, $50 was spent on airfare. Now the discrepancy is that the large majority of United States residents who took trips for pleasure in 1997 did not travel by airplane but used other means of transportation.

Lets assume 10 people took trips for pleasure. A large majority, lets say 6, did not travel by airplane.

Travel expense for 6 people who did not travel by airplane = (60 - 50) = $10
Travel expense for 4 people who travelled by airplane = $50

Hence, average money spent on travel by people who DID NOT travel by airplane is less that those who did.

Hence D.

first information:-
total $ spend on pleasure trip by residents says 100$
second information:-
large portion of this amount is for transportation says 60$
third info:-
half of transportation cost is airfare says 30$ , equal to other means of trans.
Forth :- Residents who took trips for pleasure say 10 people
large portion did not use air-plane says 6 people did not use it. so 4 people use it.

Lets check D first avg cost for airfare 30/4 = more than 7 and avg cost for other tran 30/6 = 5 ... so correct answer
Lets check other answers
Both A and B give us reason why people travelled by some mode or why people not travelled by other mode.
C , with information above , we dont know how much travelling anybody has done, so we cannot tell per mile.
E cannot be the answer.

Please let me know if looks good and do let me know if my reasoning is wrong

Same expenses, more people means lower expense per person.

Answer choice D.

I have only one question on this one. I'm going to rewrite the portion of the stimulus that confuses me...

"Transportation expenses accounted for a large portion of the total dollar amount spent on trips for pleasure by residents of the United States in 1997"

Now please help me with this confusion..

What is this amount that we're talking about?
Is it

A. The entire total of all the resident travellers combined?
or
B. The entire total of one resident traveller's transportation expense?

Although, if it were clearly written that "transportation expenses on average for residents", then it would definitely be B. But how do we differentiate? will "on average" always be explicitly stated when it is meant to?
Experts, please help on this. IanStewart mikemcgarry
your help is really appreciated.

The question talks about "the total amount spent by residents". That has to mean the total amount, because "residents" is pluralized. If instead it meant the amount per person, there would be a few ways to convey that - it could say 'per person', or use the word 'average', or talk about the amount spent by 'each resident' (and there are surely other ways that aren't occurring to me right now).

But the distinction you're asking about doesn't matter in this question, because we're just concerned with the fraction of holiday expenses that are spent on transportation. It won't matter if you measure that by taking the sum total of all expenses, or by looking at expenses per person; you'll get the same result. If people spent $H in total on holidays, and $T in total on transportation, then T/H is the fraction of holiday expenses spent on transportation. If you have n people in total, then on average each person spent $H/n on holidays, and $T/n on transportation, so the fraction the average person spent on transportation was (T/n)/(H/n) = T/H, so is the same as what we found using the sum totals.

GMATNinja VeritasPrepKarishma GMATNinjaTwo

Hi Experts,

I am presenting my approach which took me more than 3 mins.

total amount spent on trips for pleasure by residents of the United States in 1997: 100 USD

amount spent on trips for pleasure by residents of the United States in 1997: 51 USD

total dollar amount spent on the airfare transportation: 50 USD

% United States residents who took trips for pleasure in 1997 and used other means of transportation: 51

If 51% people spent 50 USD on non airfare ie 50 USD and 49% spent on airfare say 50 USD assuming total as X% and simpliying
if 2 people spend 2 $ among them and 1 person spends 2 $ making the former ie airplane more expensive.

Can you explain specific difference between large and most?

The passage states that "the large majority of United States residents who took trips for pleasure in 1997 did not travel by airplane but used other means of transportation." A 49%-51% split would not represent a "large" majority. There is no numerical cutoff for a "large" majority but if the numbers were that close, it would make more sense to call it a "slim" majority.

For example, if 499 people like Coke and 501 like Pepsi, then most people like Pepsi and the majority of people like Pepsi. But does a large majority prefer Pepsi? Not in this case because the difference is very small. If 800 people like Coke and 200 like Pepsi, then we could say that the large majority of people surveyed like Coke. Again, there really isn't any absolute rule for the numerical cutoff, but if we want to use "large majority", there should be a significant difference.

I hope that helps!

Hi GMATNinja

While explaining (D) you wrote:



If I interpret correctly, the two equal bar graphs are TOTAL TRANSPORTATION COSTS each for
(a) airfare in case 1 and (2) non air-fare in case 2.

Now Option (E) says:


Do not highlighted statement and option (E) mean the same? What is interpretation of ON AVERAGE in option (E)?

The highlighted portion of your explanation is accurate. If we add up the TOTAL TRANSPORTATION COSTS, about half of that total would be airfare and the other half would be other transportation expenses (not airfare).

But choice (E) doesn't quite say that. Pay particular attention to the underlined portion: "Those who traveled by airplane spent about as much, on average, on other means of transportation as they did on airfare." This means that we are only looking at people who traveled by airplane. Now we could add up the total amount that those people spent on their airfare and divide the total by the number of people to get the AVERAGE amount spent on airfare by those people. For example, if there were 200 people who traveled by airplane and they spent a total of $100,000 on airfare, then the amount spent on airfare by those people was $500 ON AVERAGE.

According to choice (E), the average amount that those people spent on airfare was about the same as the average amount that those people spent on other modes of transportation (i.e. buses, trains, taxis, etc.). This could be true, but we don't know for sure based on the information in the passage. For example, it is just as likely that those people spent much less, on average, on OTHER modes of transportation. Perhaps they spent $500 on average for airfare and only $100 on average for buses, trains, etc.

I hope that helps!

GMATNinja,

Thank you for the awesome explanation.
I just had a doubt with C. I understand the error with the 'per mile traveled' part. As per the explanation, those who traveled by airplane may have spent more IN TOTAL on transportation than did those who used other means of transportation.
The argument, however, says "about half of the total dollar amount spent on the transportation was airfare". This means roughly 50 percent. I thought that this could be 50 percent or slightly less than 50 percent. Then how is that there can be a case where "those who traveled by airplane may have spent MORE in total on transportation than did those who used other means of transportation". More importantly, can roughly half mean more than half?
Also, I am unsure that any inference can be drawn regarding the airfare portion of TE being more or less than the other means of transportation portion of TE. As per my understanding, we need the word 'average' as used in D to make it a valid inference.

Thanks and Regards,
Udit

“About half” simply means “around half”, so it’s definitely possible that slightly more or slightly less than 50% of the total dollar amount spent was on airfare. While it’s not necessarily true, we use an example where those traveling by airplane spend MORE in total to show that, even then, they could spend LESS per mile.

Although the word “average” is not used in (C), it says that “those who traveled by airplane tended to spend more on transportation....” The words “tended to” mean that those traveling by airplane were likely to spend more on travel per mile. If they were likely to spend more per mile, then we can safely conclude that, on average, they did spend more per mile.

I hope that helps!

Say: GroupA: Airfare 100$ ; other TE 100$ (total people : 100)



TE( travel by plane)= 200/100 = 2$
Case1: 100/500 = 0.2$ [GroupB : Other mode 50$; other TE: 50$ ( total people 500) or GroupB : Other mode 20$; other TE: 80$ ( total people 500) or GroupB : Other mode 80$; other TE: 20$ ( total people 500)]
Case2: 200/500 = 0.4$ [GroupB : Other mode 100$; other TE: 100$ ( total people 500) or 50:150 or 150:50]
Case3: 500/500 = 1$ [GroupB : Other mode 250$; other TE: 250$ ( total people 500) or 200:300 or 300:200]
Case4: 1000/500 = 2$ [GroupB : Other mode 500$; other TE: 500$ ( total people 500) or 400:600 or 600:400]

Case 3 and case 4: Doesn't satisfy

Wrong


Those who traveled by airplane = 100 people spent on average other means of transportation ( 100$) as they did on airfare(100$)
average airfare: 100/100( airfare)= 1
average no-airfare= 100/100 = 1

Same 1:1
correct


Sir , whats wrong in my D and E.

I chose E over D.
What am I missing. I checked above explanations
Doubts for D: why non- airfare expense can not be more than airfare? people who didnt travel by air may have spent more while travelling by train or car . Airfare is not always expensive than other modes of transportation
Doubts for E: Why people considered the amount spent on other modes of travel of group who didnt use air. Option E specifically asks average of people spent on airfare with other modes. Why do we need to consider expensiture o other group whih is not asked for.

Please correct AndrewN sir GMATNinja

I think you have lost sight of the passage, imSKR. You know by now that I recommend a streamlined approach that leans heavily on exactly what the passage says. When you create a scaffolding around a half truth, you still get an incorrect answer. How about we approach these two answer choices by quoting the passage directly?


What do we know about people who did not travel by airplane? The last sentence of the passage tells us that this group represents the large majority of travelers. Since the first sentence tells us that about half of the total dollar amount spent on the transportation was airfare, we can deduce that within that other half of transportation expenses would lie the total dollar amount spent by our target group, those who did not travel by airplane. Stitched together, we can say with certainty that more of one group of travelers spent no more money on transportation expenses than did another group, even if the transportation expenses were the same on the whole. Finally, when you divide either the same amount or a lesser amount by a greater number (of travelers, in this case), the average will always be lower. Thus, we cannot argue against (D).


Where do we get any information in the passage about those who traveled by airplane also spending on other means of transportation? Not in the first sentence, and not in the second either. So, in short, we cannot speculate on how much this group of people may have spent on transportation outside of airfare. There is nothing to lean on in the passage, the opposite of what we want in a must be true answer. This should be an easy elimination.

I hope you will take the time to let these points sink in. Sometimes when you want something to be true, you (the general you) close your mind to other possibilities and forget to seek out evidence to support your idea.

Thank you for thinking to ask me about this one.

- Andrew

Thanks AndrewN sir, I realized the mistake in understanding the 1st sentence, thus I got answer E but not D

What I read before:
Transportation expenses accounted for a large portion of the total dollar amount spent on trips for pleasure by residents of the United States in 1997, and about half of the total dollar amount spent ( of Transportation expenses ) on the transportation was airfare.

What is given:
Transportation expenses accounted for a large portion of the total dollar amount spent on trips for pleasure by residents of the United States in 1997, and about half of the total dollar amount spent ( of the total dollar amount spent on trips for pleasure by residents of the United States in 1997, ) on the transportation was airfare.

Transportation expenses =A: Spent on Trips ( large proportion) + B: Other transportation ( smaller proportion)

Half of the amount of A = airfare on trips = A1
Half of amount of A= non Airfare on trips= A2

2nd statement: X (800: large majority>> Y( 200)
D says: A1/800< A2/200 = absolutely true

Now My understanding is right? So Lesson learnt: Be more specific.