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

Question

By analyzing the garbage of a large number of average-sized households, a group of modern urban anthropologists has found that a household discards less food the more standardized- made up of canned and prepackaged foods-its diet is. The more standardized a household’s diet is, however, the greater the quantities of fresh produce the household throws away.

What is the significance of

. Does it mean less food discarded of canned and prepackaged -> more standardisation

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

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

(B) The less standardized a household’s diet is, the more nonfood waste the household discards.

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

(D) The less standardized a household’s diet is, the more canned and prepackaged foods the household discards as waste.

(E) The more fresh produce a household buys, the more fresh produce it throws away.

Suneha123 · Answer

More standardized>>Discard less
Less standardized>>Discard more
More standardized>>Large amount of fresh produce
Less standardized>>Less amount of fresh produce

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

(A) An increasing number of households rely on a highly standardized diet.
Can't infer about the number of houses using any type of diet

(B) The less standardized a household’s diet is, the more nonfood waste the household discards.
Can't infer about nonfood diet

(C) The less standardized a household’s diet is, the smaller is the proportion of fresh produce in the household’s food waste.
More standardized>>Large amount of fresh produce
Less standardized>>Less amount of fresh produce

(D) The less standardized a household’s diet is, the more canned and prepackaged foods the household discards as waste.
If its diet is less standardized, then there will be less canned & prepackaged foods then how can the discards be more.

(E) The more fresh produce a household buys, the more fresh produce it throws away.
No relation of buying & throwing

pratikpokharkar · Answer

HI experts ,
I also chose C but I still have a small query. Option C talks about PROPORTION of fresh produce whereas argument is about ACTUAL QUANTITY . Even though people with low Std.diet waste smaller proportion , actual waste Qty by this people may be higher than that of the people with high std diet .

Based on above understanding, inferring C may become difficult.

Pl clarify.

VikneashDeva · Answer

For Conditional Reasoning we need to identify what the sufficient condition is and what the necessary condition is. A sufficient condition does not make the necessary condition occur. It is just a sign or indicator that the necessary condition will occur, is occurring, or has already occurred. 
So here we are given two statements lets review it one by one.
 Condition One:   A group of modern urban anthropologists has found that a household discards less food the more standardized- made up of canned and prepackaged foods-its diet is. 
Here less food discarded just indicates more standardized diet the household is having so the necessary condition here is  Standardized diet  without which the sufficient condition cannot occur.
 So two inferences can be made
1) Less Food Discard --> More Standardized diet (As already given)
2) Less Standardized Diet --> More Food Discard (Contrapositive statement)
 Condition Two:   The more standardized a household’s diet is, however, the greater the quantities of fresh produce the household throws away. 
Similarly, more Fresh Produce getting thrown away indicates more Standardized the diet is. So accordingly two inferences can be made
3) More Fresh Produce as Discard --> More Standardized diet
4) Less standardized Diet --> Less Fresh Produce as Discard.
So as per the inference 4, option C is the correct one. Hope this helps you

shivamlohiya007 · Answer

Please explain why C is correct.

MartyTargetTestPrep · Answer

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

akbgmatter · Answer

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.

Piyu1 · Answer

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

mSKR · Answer

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:)

minalgambhir · Answer

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

krittapat · Answer

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.

aishu0091 · Answer

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

kittle · Answer

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" ?

Deep32470 · Answer

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.

nguyenttt · Answer

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

GMATNinja · Answer

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:
 
 The more I eat ice cream, the happier I am.  
 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!

FediseK700+ · Answer

By analyzing the garbage of a large number of average-sized households, a group of modern urban anthropologists has found that a household discards less food the more standardized- made up of canned and prepackaged foods-its diet is. The more standardized a household’s diet is, however, the greater the quantities of fresh produce the household throws away.

What is the significance of

. Does it mean less food discarded of canned and prepackaged -> more standardisation

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

(A) An increasing number of households rely on a highly standardized diet. 
 (B) The less standardized a household’s diet is, the more nonfood waste the household discards. 
 (C) The less standardized a household’s diet is, the smaller is the proportion of fresh produce in the household’s food waste. 
 (D) The less standardized a household’s diet is, the more canned and prepackaged foods the household discards as waste. 
 (E) The more fresh produce a household buys, the more fresh produce it throws away.

To find the correct answer, we have to understand the following relationships:

a household discards less food the more standardized- made up of canned and prepackaged foods-its diet is : Standardized Diet↑ => Discarded Food↓  
 
  The more standardized a household’s diet is, however, the greater the quantities of fresh produce the household throws away. : Standardized Diet↑ => Fresh Produce Thrown Away↑

In simple terms, a  more  standardised diet leads to both  less  discarded food and  more  fresh produce thrown away. 
This means that a  less  standardised diet will lead to both  more  discarded food and  less  fresh produce thrown away (basically the opposite of the above).

Another important thing to understand is that the fresh produce thrown away is a subpart of discarded food. In other words: Fresh Produce Thrown Away/Discarded Food = Proportion of fresh produce in the household’s food waste

Finally, if we understand all of the above, we can derive the final answer:

Standardized Diet↑ => Fresh Produce Thrown Away↑/Discarded Food↓ =>  More  fresh produce thrown away and  less  discarded food => The proportion of fresh produce in the discarded food will be  bigger . In other words, the fraction gets bigger.  
 Standardized Diet↓ => Fresh Produce Thrown Away↓/Discarded Food↑ =>  Less  fresh produce thrown away and  more  discarded food => The proportion of fresh produce in the discarded food will be  smaller . In other words, the fraction gets smaller.

This is exactly what the correct answer (  C  ) means:  The less standardized a household’s diet is, the smaller is the proportion of fresh produce in the household’s food waste.

viswanath1 · Answer

By analyzing the garbage of a large number of average-sized households, a group of modern urban anthropologists has found that a household discards less food the more standardized- made up of canned and prepackaged foods-its diet is. The more standardized a household’s diet is, however, the greater the quantities of fresh produce the household throws away.

What is the significance of

. Does it mean less food discarded of canned and prepackaged -> more standardisation

What is the significance of . Does it mean less food discarded of canned and prepackaged -> more standardisation

GMATNinja · Answer

The part between the dashes is a description of a "standardized" diet:

A completely standardized diet would be one that is made up entirely of canned and prepackaged foods.
 
 A completely NON-standardized diet would be one that includes NO canned or prepackaged foods.
 
 And of course a household's diet can be anywhere in between those two extremes. The more canned and prepackaged foods in the diet, the more "standardized" the diet is.

(And we're told that the more "standardized" the diet is, (1) the lower the overall quantity of discarded food and (2) the greater the quantity of discarded fresh produce.)

I hope that helps!

Behzodbek · Answer

More standard => Less food discarded. For example, discards 10 kilos of food.
More standard => Fresh food as a percentage in the food discarded above is in greater amounts. Thus, discards 10 kilos of food, but out of it 9 kilos are fresh and 1 kilo is not fresh.

Let’s see the opposite of it:
Less standard => More (not less to be exact) food discarded. For example, discards 30 kilos of food.
 Less standard => Fresh food as a percentage in the food discarded above is in smaller (not greater amounts to be exact) amounts. Thus, discards 30 kilos of food, but out of it 27 kilos are not fresh and 3 kilos are fresh.

Hence, answer C gives this notion.

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

Prep Toolkit

Top 5 GMAT Debrief Videos

615 to 715 in 15 Days (Ria's Strategies)

More than Quant/Verbal Abilities: Speed vs. Accuracy

745 with Only Self-Prep and GMAT Club

From 555 to 765: 210-point Improvement

Perfect 805 Score Debrief by Julia

My Rewards

GMAT Critical Reasoning (CR) Questions

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

Prep Toolkit

615 to 715 in 15 Days (Ria's Strategies)

More than Quant/Verbal Abilities: Speed vs. Accuracy

745 with Only Self-Prep and GMAT Club

From 555 to 765: 210-point Improvement

Perfect 805 Score Debrief by Julia

My Rewards