By analyzing the garbage of a large number of average-sized households

Please explain why C is correct.

Less Standardized >> Greater Total Quantity of Food Discarded
Less Standardized >> Smaller Quantity of Fresh Produce Discarded

Smaller Quantity of Fresh Produce / Greater Total Quantity of Food Discarded = Smaller Proportion

Crux of the passage.
HH more Std diet -> Throw less food away
HH -> more std diet -> more fresh produce is thrown away.

Type -> Infer

Which of the following can be properly inferred from the passage?

(A) An increasing number of households rely on a highly standardized diet.
Out of scope; Eliminate
(B) The less standardized a household’s diet is, the more nonfood waste the household discards.
Can't be inferred, Eliminate.
(C) The less standardized a household’s diet is, the smaller is the proportion of fresh produce in the household’s food waste.
yes! since if a HH has more std. diet, it throws away more fresh produce, similarly for a HH which has less standardized diet, the fresh produce in household's waste is smaller. Correct!
(D) The less standardized a household’s diet is, the more canned and prepackaged foods the household discards as waste.
Opposite of what's can be inferred; Eliminate
(E) The more fresh produce a household buys, the more fresh produce it throws away.
Can't be inferred. Eliminate.

C is a clear winner.

Plz help me understand this question. Is this really 600-700 Level Question because i felt some 700 Level were easy

Core of argument is in sentences =
1. discards less food the more standardized its diet is
2. The more standardized a household’s diet is the greater the quantities of fresh produce throws away

Combine meaning of 1 and 2:
More Standardized diet households ==> discard less food ==> greater quantity of fresh waste ==> less quantity of fresh waste ( less %age)





A, B and E are gone as it talks about something whcih is not even present in argument. ( question is inference based)



We are given statement about more Standardized diet households. it means for low standardized diet households ( C and D options) 1 and 2 should not be valid.

C says: less standardized --> small proportion of fresh produce ---> more proportion of diets/can etc.
( this true can be inferred because if these households have more proportion of fresh products in waste then they are more likely more standardized )

D says: less standardized --> more canned and prepacked foods waste
At first glance , you may find C and D similar. But D compares less standardized vs more standardized household ( c compares proportion of canned food vs fresh food).
So ask who throw more canned and prepacked food waste? We don't know because argument talks about proportion of waste in fresh vs canned. Nothing comparison with low standardized.
In other words, arguments talk what more standardized households throws . But it is not given how much their waste as compared to low standardized food.

hence C is the final answer.


Hope it is clear:)

ANSWER CHOICE ANALYSIS -

A) Increasing number of households - not mentioned in the argument
B) non food waste - not mentioned in the argument
C) CORRECT
D) more canned food waste for less standardised households actually reverses the argument
E) Buying of fresh produce not mentioned in the passage

GMATNinja egmat VeritasKarishma mikemcgarry
Could you please help answer why either option B or D is not the right one?
I was hesitating around B, C, and D.
Appreciate your help.

more standardised diet, less food wastage.
more standardized diet, greater the fresh produce waste.

Which of the following can be properly inferred from the passage?

(A) An increasing number of households rely on a highly standardized diet. : outside info.

(B) The less standardized a household’s diet is, the more nonfood waste the household discards. : non food is out of the scope of the passage.

(C) The less standardized a household’s diet is, the smaller is the proportion of fresh produce in the household’s food waste. : less standard, smaller proportion of fresh produce in waste.

the stimulus is saying, more standardised, more fresh produce wastage. the answer choice above is direct opposite which makes sense.

(D) The less standardized a household’s diet is, the more canned and prepackaged foods the household discards as waste.: less standard, more canned waste- going too far. taking the ideas and not making valid conclusions.

(E) The more fresh produce a household buys, the more fresh produce it throws away: households are generic - this passage focuses on standard and non standard

GMATNinja - does the reverse always hold true? As pointed out in the explanation of option C below?
The LESS standardized a household’s diet is, however, the FEWER the quantities of fresh produce the household throws away" ?

The more standardized a household’s diet is, however, the greater the quantities of fresh produce the household throws away.

Above is the last part of the argument.
I worked in this way,

The more standardized a household’s diet is, however, the greater the quantities of fresh produce the household throws away.

Hence,

The less standardized a household’s diet is, the lesser the quantities of fresh produce the household throws away.

HH more standardized => waste less food (in total)
HH more standardized => waste more quantities of produce
proportion of fresh produce/ total food will DECLINE (denominator decline, numerator increase) => C

Yes, the reverse of a direct correlation will always be true. That’s to say that when something going up makes another things go up, they’ll also go down together. If you’re more quant-inclined, it may be helpful to visualize it as a linear graph.

For example, consider these two statements:

1. The more I eat ice cream, the happier I am. 
2. The less I eat ice cream, the less happy I am. 

If the first statement is true, the second one is also true.

I hope that helps!­­­­­