The beer industry is still very profitable and the projections are tha

Hey All,

Looks like there's some confusion on this one, so I figured I'd weigh in. Always feel free to PM me with any specific questions.

The beer industry is still very profitable and the projections are that it will remain so. In the United States this year, the total amount of beer sold by breweries has increased, even though the number of adults who drink beer has decreased.

Each of the following, if true, could explain the simultaneous increase in beer sales and decrease in the number of adults who drink beer EXCEPT:

This is an explain the discrepancy question, which are often among the simplest on the test. This one makes things a bit more interesting by making it an EXCEPT question, but because it repeats the discrepancy itself in the question stem, all we need to do is think about what explains the EXACT discrepancy (not anything else).

1. During this year, the number of women who have begun to drink beer is greater than the number of men who have quit drinking beer.
ANSWER: This would actually mean MORE people are drinking beer this year. But the discrepancy is that FEWER people are drinking beer, and sales are still up. That doesn't work.

2. The number of underage people who have begun to drink beer is greater than the number of adults who have quit drinking beer during the same period.
PROBLEM: This does explain the discrepancy by playing off the word "adults". Sales among adults could be down, but sales among the underage could be up (more than adult sales are down), leading to the described discrepancy.

3. During this year, the number of nondrinkers who have begun to drink beer is greater than the number of people who have quit drinking beer.
PROBLEM: Again, they're playing with "people" over "adults". This could thus explain the discrepancy if the people aren't adults.

4. The people who have continued to drink beer consume more beer per person than they have in the past.
PROBLEM: This does explain the discrepancy. In fact, it's the most obvious. I think D is popular here because people missed the EXCEPT. Classic!

5. More of the beer made in the United States this year was exported to other countries than was the case last year.
PROBLEM: This explains why there are more sales, in spite of the fact that fewer people are drinking.

Hope that helps!

-tommy

P.S. In the future, don't put "easy one" on a question or no one will look at it. This one's actually quite tricky!