A circuits manufacturer in California needs a significant amount of pu

Question

A circuits manufacturer in California needs a significant amount of pure silver for its wires. The manufacturer had two choices for a source of silver of this grade: a silver mine in a neighboring state or a silver distributor in East Asia. The latter was 30% less expensive when all costs, including transportation and related expenses, were included. The CEO of the manufacturer signed a long-term deal with the East Asian silver distributor, arguing that choice will save money over the course of the contract. This choice of the East Asian silver distributor is likely to prove more expensive than the silver mine in the neighboring state because ___________.

Which of the following most logically completes the passage?

A. the insurance rate for goods shipped over major oceans, especially a shipping route halfway around the globe, is considerably higher than the insurance for all forms of land-based shipping.

B. the pure silver needed for circuitry is typically much more expensive per ounce than the silver that appears in jewelry

C. the workers at the mine in the neighboring state are in a union that has recently gone on strike for higher wages and better working conditions

D. diesel, which should be used to fuel transcontinental supply ships per international regulations, was at an unusually low price during the time when this manufacturer modeled the costs.

E. as of last month, new refinement techniques have caused the price of domestic silver to reach new lows.

ElninoEffect · Accepted Answer

Let's do it Matrix Style.

You have to choose between two pills Red(silver mining in a neighboring state): Which costs more but is close. Blue(silver distributor east asia): Which costs less(after taking all kinds of costs into consideration) but is far. The decision was made and the Blue Pill was chosen but it lead to the paradox it actually started costing more. Solve the paradox.! (Hehahahahahha) A. the insurance rate for goods shipped over major oceans, especially a shipping route halfway around the globe, is considerably higher than the insurance for all forms of land-based shipping. All kinds of costs were taken into consideration before the result was declared. Simulation trying to stop us from getting to the right answer. don't fall for it. B. the pure silver needed for circuitry is typically much more expensive per ounce than the silver that appears in jewelry So.? The manufacturer is making electronic circuits was clear from the very beginning then why this information.? Trinity is that you.?(hahahaha) C. the workers at the mine in the neighboring state are in a union that has recently gone on strike for higher wages and better working conditions We are trying to resolve the paradox of rise in the cost of the blue pill. This will not help me. A detour.(a side mission)

D. diesel, which should be used to fuel transcontinental supply ships per international regulations, was at an unusually low price during the time when this manufacturer modeled the costs. Got the glitch in the fabric of time and reality. This is the reason why it happened. E. as of last month, new refinement techniques have caused the price of domestic silver to reach new lows. Again talking about the Red Pill. Countdown to Matrix Resurrections begins. keanu Reeves(the ultimate time traveler)

Dhwanii · Answer

ElninoEffect , why not E because price for silver from neighboring state is going down right ? Option D - Where is it mentioned that silver has to be shipped what if its flying down via airplane or something

ElninoEffect · Answer

A circuits manufacturer in California needs a significant amount of pure silver for its wires. The manufacturer had two choices for a source of silver of this grade: a silver mine in a neighboring state or a silver distributor in East Asia. The latter was 30% less expensive when all costs, including transportation and related expenses, were included. The CEO of the manufacturer signed a long-term deal with the East Asian silver distributor, arguing that choice will save money over the course of the contract. This choice of the East Asian silver distributor is likely to prove more expensive than the silver mine in the neighboring state because ___________.

Which of the following most logically completes the passage?

A. the insurance rate for goods shipped over major oceans, especially a shipping route halfway around the globe, is considerably higher than the insurance for all forms of land-based shipping.

B. the pure silver needed for circuitry is typically much more expensive per ounce than the silver that appears in jewelry

C. the workers at the mine in the neighboring state are in a union that has recently gone on strike for higher wages and better working conditions

D. diesel, which should be used to fuel transcontinental supply ships per international regulations, was at an unusually low price during the time when this manufacturer modeled the costs.

E. as of last month, new refinement techniques have caused the price of domestic silver to reach new lows.

Show Answer

Official Answer

D

Let's start with your first doubt: why not E because price for silver from neighboring state is going down right ? You are saying since the price for silver from neighboring state is going down means the price of silver which we are importing from asia automatically should go up.! Reversal technique. I like that. True but by how much the price has gone down we don't know. From the question stem we know that the price of exported silver was 30% less than the price from the neighboring state. So, if the price has reduced by more than 30% we are golden but what if its not, i mean it has reduced but not by 30% then.? (we don't have a definite answer here) We can't choose it. Now your second doubt. Option D - Where is it mentioned that silver has to be shipped what if its flying down via airplane or something Now you are assuming things here but it's ok let's play along. What we know from option D is that at the time when the manufacturer calculated the formula for the cost, at that time the price of diesel was unusually low . (agreed.?) Now you are saying what if the transportation was done through Airplanes (using ATF) and not through ships (using diesels) by the way both come under transportation cost. Now to that, I can say what if both are interrelated as in since the price of diesel goes up more people will be using airplanes for transport and hence raising the price of the same so in short they are related. Another example: If there are two kinds of transport and one transport goes on strike, the other will definitely benefit from it by raising the price.(Economics: monopoly) So even though the manufacturer was not getting its silver shipped through ships the rise in the price of diesel will still have an effect. I hope you are understanding what I am trying to say but you don't need to think this much because I already proved why option E is wrong so we are left with option D only but again I deep-dived into it just to explain and clear your doubt.

IanStewart · Answer

I don't think there's any way to pick an answer here. D is one of two contenders, but we need to assume quite a lot for it to be a genuinely good answer here. We don't even know that ships are used to transport the silver, and we also don't know, and this is something the question really needs to spell out, whether the circuit manufacturer actually used this unusually low diesel price in its cost calculation, or if the manufacturer accounted for the fact that the price was likely to change (which is what anyone competent would do). I don't even know why answer D says diesel "should be used". Is it used or not? That's what we need to know - if it should be used, but no one does use it, then answer D is irrelevant.

E also is potentially good, but we don't know when the costs were calculated, so we can't judge the relevance of the "as of last month" that E mentions. If the costs were calculated a while ago, and then the price of silver from the state mine plummeted, then naturally the mine might now be cheaper than the overseas supplier. If the costs were calculated yesterday, then they presumably account for the new low price that E mentions.

I can kind of tell from seeing so many CR questions that D is meant to be the right answer, but there are holes in the question that you won't find in official CR problems.

Bunuel · Answer

Official Explanation

In this question, we want to explain why the plan to use the silver from East Asia will be more costly than the silver from a neighboring state.

The credited answer is (D). If the model used an unusually low price for diesel, and if diesel, usually much more expensive, has to be used for shipping from Asia, then this definitely will cause the East Asia silver to cost more. This is certainly a reason why the East Asia silver will cost more than the model, and a possible reason why it will cost more than the silver from the neighboring state.

We are told that the deal took into account “transportation and related expenses.” Shipping insurance is a related expense, so even if this cost is high, it’s already been factored in. Choice (A) is incorrect.

Choice (B) is out of scope. Both locations, neighboring state & East Asia, have silver of the grade required for circuitry. Silver of other grades, such as that use in jewelry, are not relevant.

We are looking for something that would weaken the CEO’s decision. Choice (C) would strengthen the decision: it does the opposite. It would make the silver from the neighboring state more expensive, and this result would make the CEO’s decision look even better. Choice (C) is incorrect.

Choice (E) is a tempting answer. The price of the silver from the neighboring state has dropped, as of last month. Was this new price included in the CEO’s model? We don’t know. If the model included the new price, then the plan already accounts for this. If the model did not include the new price, then this could be a reason that the silver from the neighboring state would cost less than the model predicted. We don’t know, so we can’t choose (E).

VerbalBot · Answer

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A circuits manufacturer in California needs a significant amount of pu

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A circuits manufacturer in California needs a significant amount of pu

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