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BeckyRobinsonTPR
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Passenger boardings on busses almost doubled between 1995 and 2005, ye Updated on: 07 May 2018, 23:55
Originally posted by BeckyRobinsonTPR on 01 Jul 2013, 18:55.
Last edited by Bunuel on 07 May 2018, 23:55, edited 1 time in total.
Renamed the topic and edited the question.
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81% (01:36) correct 19% (02:06) wrong based on 424 sessions

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Passenger boardings on busses almost doubled between 1995 and 2005, yet the actual number of trips made by passengers increased by only 38 percent over the same period. The reason for this discrepancy is that a new boarding is counted each time a passenger must make a connection in order to reach their final destination.

Which of the following, if true, best helps explain why the increase in boardings exceeded the increase in the number of bus trips between 1995 and 2005?


A) Between 1995 and 2005, the number of bus stops increased dramatically.

B) Between 1995 and 2005, the total distance of the average bus trip increased significantly.

C) Between 1995 and 2005, the proportion of bus trips requiring passengers to make a connection en route to their final destinations increased significantly.

D) The proportion of business travelers using busses increased significantly between 1995 and 2005 relative to the proportion of pleasure travelers.

E) The average seating capacity of busses increased significantly between 1995 and 2005.
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C
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Aniketa
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Passenger boardings on busses almost doubled between 1995 and 2005, ye 01 Jul 2013, 21:56
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BeckyRobinsonTPR
Passenger boardings on busses almost doubled between 1995 and 2005, yet the actual number of trips made by passengers increased by only 38 percent over the same period. The reason for this discrepancy is that a new boarding is counted each time a passenger must make a connection in order to reach their final destination.

Which of the following, if true, best helps explain why the increase in boardings exceeded the increase in the number of bus trips between 1995 and 2005?

A) Between 1995 and 2005, the number of bus stops increased dramatically.
B) Between 1995 and 2005, the total distance of the average bus trip increased significantly.
C) Between 1995 and 2005, the proportion of bus trips requiring passengers to make a connection en route to their final destinations increased significantly.
D) The proportion of business travelers using busses increased significantly between 1995 and 2005 relative to the proportion of pleasure travelers.
E) The average seating capacity of busses increased significantly between 1995 and 2005.
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Boyy! that was a tough one! I wasn't just sure about what exactly do the two terms mean -
1) Passenger boardings = p
2) Actual number of trips a passenger makes = a

Suppose passenger goes from A to B via C, D and E - then, total number of
1) Passenger boardings - 4 ( A-C, C-D, D-E, E-B)
2) Actual number of trip - 1

So the answer will justify the higher ratio of p/a --

A) Between 1995 and 2005, the number of bus stops increased dramatically. -- Still doesnt mean that there will be more boardings on the way!
B) Between 1995 and 2005, the total distance of the average bus trip increased significantly. -- would infact lessen the number of boardings.
C) Between 1995 and 2005, the proportion of bus trips requiring passengers to make a connection en route to their final destinations increased significantly. -- Yes, this clearly states that more bus trips now require passengers to make connections. Higher the connections, more is the p/a.
D) The proportion of business travelers using buses increased significantly between 1995 and 2005 relative to the proportion of pleasure travelers. -- Business vs pleasure has no bearing on the p/a.
E) The average seating capacity of buses increased significantly between 1995 and 2005. -- Seating capacity is irrelevant!!
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Passenger boardings on busses almost doubled between 1995 and 2005, ye Updated on: 02 Jul 2013, 16:29
Originally posted by blueseas on 02 Jul 2013, 13:49.
Last edited by blueseas on 02 Jul 2013, 16:29, edited 1 time in total.
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BeckyRobinsonTPR
Passenger boardings on busses almost doubled between 1995 and 2005, yet the actual number of trips made by passengers increased by only 38 percent over the same period. The reason for this discrepancy is that a new boarding is counted each time a passenger must make a connection in order to reach their final destination.

Which of the following, if true, best helps explain why the increase in boardings exceeded the increase in the number of bus trips between 1995 and 2005?

A) Between 1995 and 2005, the number of bus stops increased dramatically.
B) Between 1995 and 2005, the total distance of the average bus trip increased significantly.
C) Between 1995 and 2005, the proportion of bus trips requiring passengers to make a connection en route to their final destinations increased significantly.
D) The proportion of business travelers using busses increased significantly between 1995 and 2005 relative to the proportion of pleasure travelers.
E) The average seating capacity of busses increased significantly between 1995 and 2005.
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please. request you to provide the official explanation.....as the meaning of the argument for me was not very clear.
but will say a good question.
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although i picked the correct answer. :-D
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Passenger boardings on busses almost doubled between 1995 and 2005, ye 02 Jul 2013, 15:42
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BeckyRobinsonTPR
Passenger boardings on busses almost doubled between 1995 and 2005, yet the actual number of trips made by passengers increased by only 38 percent over the same period. The reason for this discrepancy is that a new boarding is counted each time a passenger must make a connection in order to reach their final destination.

Which of the following, if true, best helps explain why the increase in boardings exceeded the increase in the number of bus trips between 1995 and 2005?

A) Between 1995 and 2005, the number of bus stops increased dramatically.
B) Between 1995 and 2005, the total distance of the average bus trip increased significantly.
C) Between 1995 and 2005, the proportion of bus trips requiring passengers to make a connection en route to their final destinations increased significantly.
D) The proportion of business travelers using busses increased significantly between 1995 and 2005 relative to the proportion of pleasure travelers.
E) The average seating capacity of busses increased significantly between 1995 and 2005.
Show more

First of all, thanks BeckyRobinsonTPR for a question.

This question is just difficult for those who don't understand the terms provided in the stimulus. But, that's not a logic of GMAC who focus on the logic (even when you don't understand what do terms mean). If you read the question more than 1 time, I bet you can see the pattern quite clearly.

ANALYZE THE STIMULUS:

Fact: Boarding passes doubled between 1995 to 2005
Fact: But, number of trips only increased 38%
Fact: The reason for that is: boarding pass is counted each time for each connection to the final destination.
Question: explain why the increase in boardings exceeded the increase in the number of trips.

You can see the answer actually lies on the stimulus. Because boarding pass is counted each time for each connection to the final destination. It doesn't matter how much proportion of bus trips requiring passengers to make a connection en route, the boarding pass counts must increase at least 38% because of new boarding pass counting system (actually mentioned in the stimulus). Even a small increase of the proportion of bus trips requiring passengers to make a connection ==> will make the number of boarding passes increase.

==> You just need to pick an option that talks about "increase of connection to final destination".

ANALYZE EACH ANSWER:

A) Between 1995 and 2005, the number of bus stops increased dramatically.
Wrong. "Number of bus tops" differs from "number of connections"

B) Between 1995 and 2005, the total distance of the average bus trip increased significantly.
Wrong. Out of scope. "total distance" is not relevant to "increase of number of boarding passes"

C) Between 1995 and 2005, the proportion of bus trips requiring passengers to make a connection en route to their final destinations increased significantly.
Correct. As mentioned above, the boarding pass counts must increase at least 38% because of new boarding pass counting system (actually mentioned in the stimulus). Even the small increase of the proportion of bus trips requiring passengers to make a connection ==> will make the number of boarding passes increase.

D) The proportion of business travelers using busses increased significantly between 1995 and 2005 relative to the proportion of pleasure travelers.
Wrong. Out of scope. Nothing about the proportion of "business travelers" vs "pleasure travelers".

E) The average seating capacity of busses increased significantly between 1995 and 2005.
Wrong. Out of scope. "seating capacity" does not help to explain why number of boarding passes increased more than that of bus trip.

Hope it's clear.
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Passenger boardings on busses almost doubled between 1995 and 2005, ye 02 Jul 2013, 19:52
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Official Explanation:
This is a resolve/explain type question which asks you to resolve a conflict in the information given in the paragraph. Thus, the first step is to identify the conflict. In this case the paragraph states that the number of bus boardings have increased by 50% at the same time the number of trips has only increased by 38%. Therefore a correct answer would be one that explains the difference in the number of boardings versus the number of trips. The question gives a hint that a new boarding is counted at each connection, but not a new trip, therefore your answer will probably deal with the issue of connections.

A) The number of bus stops does not affect the number of boardings, or the number of connections a passenger must make in order to arrive at their destination.
B) If the distance of the average trip increased then it could be true that people are making more connections than they used to, but this does not necessarily have to be the case.
C) Is the correct answer because it clearly states that customers are having to make more connections, and if each connection is counted as a separate boarding then that would explain why the number of boardings increased more than the number of trips.
D) The distinction between business and pleasure travelers is irrelevant in this case.
E) The increase in seating capacity does not affect the number of connections each passenger has to make to reach their destination, therefore this is not relevant.
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Passenger boardings on busses almost doubled between 1995 and 2005, ye 03 Jul 2013, 18:49
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BeckyRobinsonTPR
Passenger boardings on busses almost doubled between 1995 and 2005, yet the actual number of trips made by passengers increased by only 38 percent over the same period. The reason for this discrepancy is that a new boarding is counted each time a passenger must make a connection in order to reach their final destination.

Which of the following, if true, best helps explain why the increase in boardings exceeded the increase in the number of bus trips between 1995 and 2005?

A) Between 1995 and 2005, the number of bus stops increased dramatically.
B) Between 1995 and 2005, the total distance of the average bus trip increased significantly.
C) Between 1995 and 2005, the proportion of bus trips requiring passengers to make a connection en route to their final destinations increased significantly.
D) The proportion of business travelers using busses increased significantly between 1995 and 2005 relative to the proportion of pleasure travelers.
E) The average seating capacity of busses increased significantly between 1995 and 2005.
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Hi,

Can you please explain the meaning of connections ?
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Passenger boardings on busses almost doubled between 1995 and 2005, ye 10 Aug 2013, 06:43
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BeckyRobinsonTPR
Passenger boardings on busses almost doubled between 1995 and 2005, yet the actual number of trips made by passengers increased by only 38 percent over the same period. The reason for this discrepancy is that a new boarding is counted each time a passenger must make a connection in order to reach their final destination.

Which of the following, if true, best helps explain why the increase in boardings exceeded the increase in the number of bus trips between 1995 and 2005?

A) Between 1995 and 2005, the number of bus stops increased dramatically.
B) Between 1995 and 2005, the total distance of the average bus trip increased significantly.
C) Between 1995 and 2005, the proportion of bus trips requiring passengers to make a connection en route to their final destinations increased significantly.
D) The proportion of business travelers using busses increased significantly between 1995 and 2005 relative to the proportion of pleasure travelers.
E) The average seating capacity of busses increased significantly between 1995 and 2005.

Hi,

Can you please explain the meaning of connections ?
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Connections mean the number of times the person has to change the bus to reach the destination.
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