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Bunuel
­The average age of residents in Sunset City is well over 70 years of age, and the populace is composed almost entirely of retirees, with extremely few families having young children. However, Sunset City is also known for its many boutiques that specialize in selling clothing for infants and toddlers.

Which of the following, if true, best reconciles the seeming discrepancy described above?

A. The children's clothing boutiques in Sunset City purchase their clothing from wholesalers in Sunrise City, where there are many more families with small children.

B. The few children who do live in Sunset City do not have particularly large wardrobes.

C. The residents of Sunset City are known to spend more on health care than do residents of nearby cities.

D. The residents of Sunset City are generally wealthy and are known to spend large amounts of money buying gifts for their grandchildren and great-grandchildren who live in other cities.

E. Sunset City is not located on a major highway.



­
­

Official Explanation



This is an Explain question, as it asks for a choice that "best reconciles the seeming discrepancy" in the stimulus.

The two parts of the seeming discrepancy in an Explain question are often separated by a contrast word, such as "but," "yet," or, in this case, "however." On the one hand, Sunset City's residents are almost all older, with very few families that have young children. On the other hand, the city has many boutiques selling children's clothing.

Explain questions are often not predictable. Typically, there is just no way to know what the GMAT will come up with to explain the situation. Just be clear on what the two parts of the seeming discrepancy are and expect to find a choice that explains how both parts can be true at the same time.

(D) explains how both parts of the seeming discrepancy can be true. The clothing shops aren't there for young families living in Sunset City. Rather, the older residents of Sunset City are buying children's clothing for their grandchildren and great-grandchildren, who live in other cities. (D) is therefore correct.

(A) describes where the boutiques in Sunset City get their merchandise from. But this doesn't explain why the boutiques then sell the merchandise in Sunset City, where very few children and young families live.

(C) has nothing to do with boutiques selling children's clothing and so doesn't explain anything.

(B) and (E) deepen the mystery, as they remove other potential explanations: (B) gets rid of the possibility that the few children who live in Sunset City simply have tremendous amounts of clothes; (E) gets rid of the possibility that people who are passing through Sun City on a major highway stop to shop for their children.­
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