78.4 million dogs and 86.4 million cats are owned as pets in the U.S. Though some pets come from breeders, many others are adopted from shelters and pounds. Even though 78 percent of pet dogs and 88 percent of pet cats are spayed or neutered, there has never been a shortage of animals available for adoption. The result of these staggering numbers of animals is a booming industry of pet supplies, services, and medical care.Tables 1 and 2, respectively, indicate the average one-time adoption costs and average annual expenses associated with pet ownership. However, dogs vary significantly in size; small dogs such as chihuahuas cost on average 25 percent less than the values shown in the adoption and ownership cost tables, while larger canines such as mastiffs often cost 50 percent more. Average Per-Animal Adoption Expenses in America https://gmatclub.com/forum/download/file.php?mode=view&id=61495Average Per-Animal Annual Ownership Expenses in America https://gmatclub.com/forum/download/file.php?mode=view&id=61496 Table 1.jpg Table 2.jpg

Official Explanation 1. Consider each of the following statements. Does the information in the passage and tables support the inference as stated? Choose Yes if the statement can be accurately inferred; otherwise choose No. Americans spend over $10 billion annually on toys and treats for their cats and dogs. You can expect two things on a yes/no question like this. First, the answer will require you to look at two or three tabs. Second, the question will reward estimation. Table 2 in the third tab gives the annual cost of toys and treats, but that cost is per animal. Calculating the total expenditure for all pets requires knowing the total number of pets. To look for that data you should check your notes, which will send you to the first tab. According to the combined data from Tabs 1 and 3, there are approximately 80 million (rounded from 78.4 million) dogs in America, and their treats and toys cost an average of $60 per dog, meaning the total toy and treat expense for dogs would be about $4.8 billion. The same tabs tell you that there are approximately 90 million (rounded from 86.4 million) cats and their owners spend an average of $40 for toys and treats per cat, meaning owners spend about $3.6 billion annually on toys and treats for cats. The combined total for money spent on cat and dog treats and toys is therefore only a little over $8 billion. Even though this is a high estimate (since both of the values above were estimated by rounding up), it’s still less than $10 billion, so the answer is “No.” The average cost of adopting an average small dog and keeping it for a year is less than the cost of doing so for an average cat. This problem requires you to total the adoption and annual ownership costs. You will need information from the tables in the second and third tabs. You’ll also need to do some addition, if you haven’t already, to total up the costs in each column. If you add all of the expenses for cats, the total comes out to $800 for adopting and owning a cat for a year. For a dog the same costs $875, although if you were rounding to speed up the addition, you might have ended up with $850 or $900. Regardless, at first glance it seems clear-cut that the dog will cost more than the cat. But something should have caught your eye: this question specifies a “small” dog. When you paraphrased the tabs, you noticed that size is mentioned briefly in Tab 1. Researching that tab will reveal that small dogs average 25% less money to adopt and keep. Because 25% (or one-fourth) of $875 is well over $200 ($875 × 0.25 = $218.75, but it’s probably not worth calculating exactly), the cost reduction of having a small dog easily offsets the initial $75 difference you calculated between the cost of a dog and that of a cat. A small dog is therefore cheaper than a cat, so the answer is “Yes.” The number of categories of expenses unique to cats is the same as the number of categories unique to dogs. This question requires only simple counting, but you need to know what you’re looking for. “Categories of expenses unique to cats” means expenses that are paid only for cats, not for dogs. Since this doesn’t specify which expenses, look in both tabs that list expenses, Tables 1 and 2. Litter box and litter are the two categories unique to cats. Sleeper crate and license are the two categories unique to dogs. Both animals have two unique categories, the same number, so the answer to this question is “Yes.” 2. Based on the information in the passage and tables, the total cost of spaying or neutering all unspayed and non-neutered pet cats and dogs in America would be closest to This question asks you for the cost of spaying or neutering all unspayed and non-neutered dogs and cats in America. A glance at the answer choices can provide an important hint, as many of the answer choices are quite far apart. With numbers this big and this spread out in the answer choices, it’s usually best to estimate. Spaying and neutering statistics, as well as numbers of pets, are in the first tab. Researching this background information reveals that 22% of 78.4 million dogs and 12% of 86.4 million cats are unspayed or non-neutered. To estimate, instead say 20% of 80 million = 16 million dogs and 10% of 90 million = 9 million cats are unspayed or non-neutered. Spaying and neutering are one-time expenditures, so the second tab contains the price. At $100 each, it will cost about $1.6 billion to spay or neuter 16 million dogs. At $75 per cat, it will cost $675 million, or about $0.68 billion, to spay or neuter 9 million cats. The combined cost of spaying or neutering all unspayed and non-neutered dogs and cats is therefore about $2.3 billion. Although the estimate above rounds both percentages significantly down, it rounds the number of animals of both types up to compensate, so the resulting estimate is likely close to the real solution; regardless, the next closest answer choice ($4 billion) can’t be correct unless the above estimation is off by more than 50%. Verify that you calculated the number of decimal places correctly and didn’t confuse millions with billions. Once you’ve double-checked the accuracy of your estimations and calculations, you can see that $2.5 billion is closest and confidently choose (A) as the correct answer.

78.4 million dogs and 86.4 million cats are owned as pets in the U.S. : Multi-Source Reasoning (MSR)

	$2.5 billion
	$4.0 billion
	$12 billion
	$14.5 billion
	$27.5 billion

78.4 million dogs and 86.4 million cats are owned as pets in the U.S.

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Yes	No
		Americans spend over $10 billion annually on toys and treats for their cats and dogs.
		The average cost of adopting an average small dog and keeping it for a year is less than the cost of doing so for an average cat.
		The number of categories of expenses unique to cats is the same as the number of categories unique to dogs.

GMAT Multi-Source Reasoning (MSR) Questions