There are about 75 brands of microwave popcorn on the market : Critical Reasoning (CR)

smit29may

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Re: There are about 75 brands of microwave popcorn on the market [#permalink]

02 Apr 2015, 11:17

I would go with A.

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ravikrishna1979

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Re: There are about 75 brands of microwave popcorn on the market [#permalink]

02 Sep 2016, 22:26

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Hi VeritasPrepKarishma

(C) By volume, more microwave popcorn is sold than is conventional popcorn.
We do not know this. We know that microwave popcorn is popular but whether more microwave popcorn is sold or conventional popcorn, we are not given.
Agree that it is never told whether more people are buying microwave popcorn, but it is clearly mentioned many people are buying.

(D) More money is spent on microwave food products that take three minutes or less to cook than on microwave food products that take longer to cook.
Microwave popcorn takes 3 mins to cook and accounts for more than half the sales of microwave food products. So more than half the money spent on microwave food products is spent on microwave popcorn which takes 3 mins to cook. Hence, we can conclude that more money is spent on microwave food products that take three minutes or less to cook than on microwave food products that take longer to cook. Correct.
It is never discussed whether more people buy products of less than 3 mins than other microwave products. It is just informed that more microwave popcorn is being purchased.

I think D is totally out of scope as it is discussed in terms of Popcorn products for Microwave and conventional variety but not to the relation of any other product's purchase comparison with Microwave Popcorn.

Please correct my understand if I am thinking very differently.

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Re: There are about 75 brands of microwave popcorn on the market [#permalink]

03 Sep 2016, 22:27

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ravikrishna1979 wrote:

Hi VeritasPrepKarishma

(C) By volume, more microwave popcorn is sold than is conventional popcorn.
We do not know this. We know that microwave popcorn is popular but whether more microwave popcorn is sold or conventional popcorn, we are not given.
Agree that it is never told whether more people are buying microwave popcorn, but it is clearly mentioned many people are buying.

"Many" is not the same as "majority". Out of 100, 30 could also be considered many.

ravikrishna1979 wrote:

(D) More money is spent on microwave food products that take three minutes or less to cook than on microwave food products that take longer to cook.
Microwave popcorn takes 3 mins to cook and accounts for more than half the sales of microwave food products. So more than half the money spent on microwave food products is spent on microwave popcorn which takes 3 mins to cook. Hence, we can conclude that more money is spent on microwave food products that take three minutes or less to cook than on microwave food products that take longer to cook. Correct.
It is never discussed whether more people buy products of less than 3 mins than other microwave products. It is just informed that more microwave popcorn is being purchased.

I think D is totally out of scope as it is discussed in terms of Popcorn products for Microwave and conventional variety but not to the relation of any other product's purchase comparison with Microwave Popcorn.

Please correct my understand if I am thinking very differently.

The argument gives you : 75 brands of microwave popcorn account for a little over half of the money from sales of microwave food products.

So you know that microwave popcorn account for more than half the sales from all microwave food products. It compares popcorn to other microwave products. So the text in red in your explanation above is not correct.

D

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Re: There are about 75 brands of microwave popcorn on the market [#permalink]

23 Oct 2016, 05:58

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Please find the question in attached image..

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popcorn weaken.png [ 34.68 KiB | Viewed 12312 times ]

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Re: There are about 75 brands of microwave popcorn on the market [#permalink]

23 Oct 2016, 07:36

The conclusion is positing an explanation--which is a weak form of causation.
Be on the lookout for the argument to present some phenomenon; and then present an explanation for how or why it happened in the conclusion.
To weaken such an argument, all you need is an alternative explanation.

B provides an alternative explanation for why people purchase so much microwave popcorn--it's not the convenience, but the health factor!

A We want to address the reason why so many people purchase microwave popcorn.
C is irrelevant.
D doesn't give us a difference that could explain why many people choose microwave popcorn.
E may sound tempting, but this doesn't sound like a reason one would choose microwave popcorn!

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Re: There are about 75 brands of microwave popcorn on the market [#permalink]

24 Oct 2016, 03:25

All you need is the conclusion to figure out the answer.

Conclusion states that Y (willing to spend more money for micro wave pop corn) happens. And this happens because of X (convenience).

To weaken the conclusion, you need to find an alternate cause for Y. Which is given in option B (micro wave pop corn is less fattening)

B

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Re: There are about 75 brands of microwave popcorn on the market [#permalink]

20 Sep 2017, 17:49

Anyone knows the source of this question? Is it in Aristole's book?

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There are about 75 brands of microwave popcorn on the market [#permalink]

Updated on: 23 Dec 2017, 01:04

There are about 75 brands of microwave popcorn on the market; altogether, they account for a little over half of the money from sales of microwave food products. It takes three minutes to pop corn in the microwave, compared to seven minutes to pop corn conventionally. Yet by weight, microwave popcorn typically costs over five times as much as conventional popcorn. Judging by the popularity of microwave popcorn, many people are willing to pay a high price for just a little additional convenience.

If the statements in the passage are true, which one of the following must also be true?

Since, this is a must be true type of question, all the statements given in the stimulus are premises.

(A) No single brand of microwave popcorn accounts for a large share of microwave food product sales.- Not necessarily true. We can't conclude that no single brand accounts for a large share. There are 75 brands which is said constitute majority of the portion of the microwave food product sales but it could be possible that 1 out of these brands is dominant or it could also be likely that none is a dominant one.

(B) There are more brands of microwave popcorn on the market than there are of any other microwave food product: Again the argument mentions that microwave popcorns constitute a majority of the portion of the microwave food product sales but does not say anything about its number of brands in relation to the total.

(C) By volume, more microwave popcorn is sold than is conventional popcorn: Though, it is mentioned that many people prefer microwave popcorn to conventional one, it does not necessarily state that these people account for the majority of sales too. Many does not imply majority and also, preference does not necessarily translate into sales.

(D) More money is spent on microwave food products that take three minutes or less to cook than on microwave food products that take longer to cook.: Microwave popcorn is a microwave food product that takes three minutes or less to cook and it is also mentioned that microwave food products constitute more sales , in return implying that more money is spent on microwave food products. This can reasonably be implied and is the answer.

(E) Of the total number of microwave food products on the market, most are microwave popcorn products : This is not implied by the argument anyhow. It only states sales are more not availability in the market.

Originally posted by Poorvasha on 24 Oct 2017, 14:41.
Last edited by Poorvasha on 23 Dec 2017, 01:04, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: There are about 75 brands of microwave popcorn on the market [#permalink]

15 Dec 2017, 23:32

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souvik101990 wrote:

There are about 75 brands of microwave popcorn on the market; altogether, they account for a little over half of the money from sales of microwave food products. It takes three minutes to pop corn in the microwave, compared to seven minutes to pop corn conventionally. Yet by weight, microwave popcorn typically costs over five times as much as conventional popcorn. Judging by the popularity of microwave popcorn, many people are willing to pay a high price for just a little additional convenience.

If the statements in the passage are true, which one of the following must also be true?

(A) No single brand of microwave popcorn accounts for a large share of microwave food product sales.

(B) There are more brands of microwave popcorn on the market than there are of any other microwave food product.

(C) By volume, more microwave popcorn is sold than is conventional popcorn.

(D) More money is spent on microwave food products that take three minutes or less to cook than on microwave food products that take longer to cook.

(E) Of the total number of microwave food products on the market, most are microwave popcorn products.

Same passage with different question: LINK

1. microwave popcorn takes 3 minutes to cook AND accounts for over half of all microwave food sales.
2. microwave costs 5x more than conventional popcorn

Now for the choices:
(A) eliminate. we know nothing of the market share of different brands.

(B) eliminate. we know nothing of brands of other products.

(C) eliminate. we know nothing about volume.

(D) ?? products that take less than 3 minutes vs others? Doesn't sound right.

(E) eliminate. we know nothing about the number of products.

At this point I'd go back to (D). What do I know about products that take 3 minutes or less to cook? Well, I know that popcorn fits into that category. And I know that popcorn ALONE accounts for over half of all microwave food sales.

Now, what do I know about "products that take longer to cook?" I know this category does not include popcorn and therefore accounts for LESS THAN HALF of sales.

Therefore, I can conclude that POPCORN ALONE outsells any other group of foods, including the group that takes longer than 3 minutes. Potentially including other foods with the popcorn (all foods that take 3 min or less) only increases the sales gap between that group and the group of foods that takes longer.

B

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Re: There are about 75 brands of microwave popcorn on the market [#permalink]

17 Dec 2017, 10:09

I don't agree with the explanation. We don't know whether the non-popcorn products take more than 3 mins to get prepared.

B

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Re: There are about 75 brands of microwave popcorn on the market [#permalink]

23 Apr 2018, 12:05

egghead2017 wrote:

I don't agree with the explanation. We don't know whether the non-popcorn products take more than 3 mins to get prepared.

This is true. BUT we know the following premises:
1) Microwave Popcorn takes 3 minutes to pop
2) Of all the money spent on Microwave products, Microwave popcorn is slightly over half

Think of it like a math inequality. We know that Microwave popcorn is over 50%, so lets say for the sake of the argument that its 55% of the marketshare for microwave products. If 55% of money is spent on popcorn, and popcorn takes 3 minutes to cook, then over 50% of all money spent on microwave products is spent on products that take 3 minutes or less. It doesn't matter how long it takes the other 45% to cook, it could be 1 minute or it could be ten. Since our percentages need to add up to 100, even if EVERY OTHER microwave product took 4 minutes, we would still have only 45% of money being spent on products that take 4 minutes or more, which is going to be less than the 55% spent on popcorn.

This is a good question because it is tricky but demonstrably true without any subjectivity

S

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There are about 75 brands of microwave popcorn on the market [#permalink]

20 Aug 2022, 23:32

KarishmaB wrote:

souvik101990 wrote:

There are about 75 brands of microwave popcorn on the market; altogether, they account for a little over half of the money from sales of microwave food products. It takes three minutes to pop corn in the microwave, compared to seven minutes to pop corn conventionally. Yet by weight, microwave popcorn typically costs over five times as much as conventional popcorn. Judging by the popularity of microwave popcorn, many people are willing to pay a high price for just a little additional convenience.

If the statements in the passage are true, which one of the following must also be true?

(A) No single brand of microwave popcorn accounts for a large share of microwave food product sales.

(B) There are more brands of microwave popcorn on the market than there are of any other microwave food product.

(C) By volume, more microwave popcorn is sold than is conventional popcorn.

(D) More money is spent on microwave food products that take three minutes or less to cook than on microwave food products that take longer to cook.

(E) Of the total number of microwave food products on the market, most are microwave popcorn products.

Premises:

75 brands of microwave popcorn account for a little over half of the money from sales of microwave food products.
Microwave popcorn takes 3 minutes while conventional takes 7 minutes.
Microwave popcorn costs over five times as much as conventional popcorn.

Conclusion: Many people are willing to pay a high price for just a little additional convenience.

We are looking for an inference fro the passage. So the option should have no new information.

(A) No single brand of microwave popcorn accounts for a large share of microwave food product sales.
We know there are 75 brands but that doesn't mean that market share is split equally among them. Once brand may have a good 20% chunk or so. A single brand may account for a large share. Note that we don't know what a 'large' share is either. Hence, this is very subjective. It is certainly not our inference.

(B) There are more brands of microwave popcorn on the market than there are of any other microwave food product.
We are not given whether any other food product has more brands. It is possible that say, there are 100 brands of ready to cook meals but they all account for only 20% of the sales from microwave food products.

(C) By volume, more microwave popcorn is sold than is conventional popcorn.
We do not know this. We know that microwave popcorn is popular but whether more microwave popcorn is sold or conventional popcorn, we are not given.

(D) More money is spent on microwave food products that take three minutes or less to cook than on microwave food products that take longer to cook.
Microwave popcorn takes 3 mins to cook and accounts for more than half the sales of microwave food products. So more than half the money spent on microwave food products is spent on microwave popcorn which takes 3 mins to cook. Hence, we can conclude that more money is spent on microwave food products that take three minutes or less to cook than on microwave food products that take longer to cook. Correct.

(E) Of the total number of microwave food products on the market, most are microwave popcorn products.
We know that sales of microwave popcorn accounts for more than half but do we know whether microwave popcorn products account for most of the microwave food products on the market? No.

Answer (D)

Non satisfactory KarishmaB.

There is no mention of the timeline of cooking of the non popcorn microwave products. Such products can take less than, more than, or even equal to 3 mins.

L

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Re: There are about 75 brands of microwave popcorn on the market [#permalink]

21 Aug 2022, 23:02

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abhishekmayank wrote:

KarishmaB wrote:

souvik101990 wrote:

There are about 75 brands of microwave popcorn on the market; altogether, they account for a little over half of the money from sales of microwave food products. It takes three minutes to pop corn in the microwave, compared to seven minutes to pop corn conventionally. Yet by weight, microwave popcorn typically costs over five times as much as conventional popcorn. Judging by the popularity of microwave popcorn, many people are willing to pay a high price for just a little additional convenience.

If the statements in the passage are true, which one of the following must also be true?

(A) No single brand of microwave popcorn accounts for a large share of microwave food product sales.

(B) There are more brands of microwave popcorn on the market than there are of any other microwave food product.

(C) By volume, more microwave popcorn is sold than is conventional popcorn.

(D) More money is spent on microwave food products that take three minutes or less to cook than on microwave food products that take longer to cook.

(E) Of the total number of microwave food products on the market, most are microwave popcorn products.

Premises:

75 brands of microwave popcorn account for a little over half of the money from sales of microwave food products.
Microwave popcorn takes 3 minutes while conventional takes 7 minutes.
Microwave popcorn costs over five times as much as conventional popcorn.

Conclusion: Many people are willing to pay a high price for just a little additional convenience.

We are looking for an inference fro the passage. So the option should have no new information.

(A) No single brand of microwave popcorn accounts for a large share of microwave food product sales.
We know there are 75 brands but that doesn't mean that market share is split equally among them. Once brand may have a good 20% chunk or so. A single brand may account for a large share. Note that we don't know what a 'large' share is either. Hence, this is very subjective. It is certainly not our inference.

(B) There are more brands of microwave popcorn on the market than there are of any other microwave food product.
We are not given whether any other food product has more brands. It is possible that say, there are 100 brands of ready to cook meals but they all account for only 20% of the sales from microwave food products.

(C) By volume, more microwave popcorn is sold than is conventional popcorn.
We do not know this. We know that microwave popcorn is popular but whether more microwave popcorn is sold or conventional popcorn, we are not given.

(D) More money is spent on microwave food products that take three minutes or less to cook than on microwave food products that take longer to cook.
Microwave popcorn takes 3 mins to cook and accounts for more than half the sales of microwave food products. So more than half the money spent on microwave food products is spent on microwave popcorn which takes 3 mins to cook. Hence, we can conclude that more money is spent on microwave food products that take three minutes or less to cook than on microwave food products that take longer to cook. Correct.

(E) Of the total number of microwave food products on the market, most are microwave popcorn products.
We know that sales of microwave popcorn accounts for more than half but do we know whether microwave popcorn products account for most of the microwave food products on the market? No.

Answer (D)

Non satisfactory KarishmaB.

There is no mention of the timeline of cooking of the non popcorn microwave products. Such products can take less than, more than, or even equal to 3 mins.

We already know that popcorn takes 3 mins and accounts for a little over half of the money from sales of microwave food products. (Say of every $100 spent, $52 is spent on popcorn and $48 on all other products, whatever time they may take to cook)
So more than half the money comes from popcorn (which takes 3 mins). So more money is spent on microwave food products that take 3 mins or less to cook than on microwave food products that take longer to cook.

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Re: There are about 75 brands of microwave popcorn on the market [#permalink]

23 Aug 2023, 04:11

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Re: There are about 75 brands of microwave popcorn on the market [#permalink]

23 Aug 2023, 04:11

GMAT Critical Reasoning (CR) Questions

There are about 75 brands of microwave popcorn on the market