GMATCoachBen
Five coffee–chicory blends—J, K, L, M, and N—are all priced differently. The blends are such that the greater the proportion of coffee, the more expensive the blend—and the greater the proportion of chicory, the stronger the flavor of the blend. If the five blends were ranked in order of cost per kilogram, which would fall in the middle?
(1) Blend L has a higher proportion of coffee than the other blends except for Blend M.
(2) Blend K and Blend N both have a stronger flavor than Blend J.
The key thing which you have to look for in this question is how Gmat is using
Hyphen(-) and
Dash(--) to signify something.
Five coffee–chicory blends—J, K, L, M, and N—are all priced differently.
Between Coffee and Chicory , a Hyphen is provided i.e. it is interlinking the 2 words . So, Increase in coffee means Decrease in Chicory or vice versa. This is what this statement is implying.
After Chicory Blends , a Dash is provided which is sharing with us information wrt to types of Coffee-Chicory blends. Statement 1 :
Not Sufficient Reason :
In terms of Cost : M>L > (Rest of the three) . We don't know the order of other three. So nothing can be said about the middle term.
Statement 2 :
Not SufficientReason :
In terms of Flavour : K & N > J . But we cannot say between K & N which one is first . Also, we have no info wrt to M & L.
Either it can be K>N>J>M>L . So, J is in the middle.
or, it can be M>L>N>K>J . So, N is in the middle .
or, there can be number of ways which you can think of to arrange these types of coffee-chicory blends.
Combining Statement 1 & 2 :
SuffcientReason :
M > L in terms of cost.
And the question is informing us Greater the cost, Greater the Coffee proportion.
So, it means Chicory concentration is least in M and second least in L.
K & N > J in terms of Flavour. And the question is informing us Greater the chicory concentration, stronger is the flavour.
So it means, K & N have more chicory than J and as they have more chicory, it implies there coffee concentration is less. Therefore , there cost will be less than J.
Hence, if you rank them as per
cost : M>L>J>(K or N). So, no matter which order you put for K or N,
J will always be in the middle .
Hence, By combining , statement is sufficient.
Therefore , Answer is
C.
Hope it helps.