The Dormitory Canteen Committee decided that the prices of snacks in t

Question

The Dormitory Canteen Committee decided that the prices of snacks in the Canteen vending machines were already high enough, so they told Vendo Inc., the company holding the vending machine concession for the Canteen, either to maintain prices at the then current levels or to forfeit the concession. Vendo, however, managed to thwart the intent of the Committee’s instructions without actually violating the letter of those instructions.

Which of the following is probably the action taken by Vendo referred to in the above paragraph?

(A) The president of Vendo met with the university’s administration, and they ordered the Committee to rescind its instructions.

(B) Vendo continued prices at the prescribed levels but reduced the size of the snacks vended in the machines.

(C) Vendo ignored the Committee’s instructions and continued to raise prices.

(D) Vendo decided it could not make a fair return on its investment if it held the line on prices, so it removed its machines from the Dormitory Canteen.

(E) Representatives of Vendo met with members of the Dormitory Canteen Committee and offered them free snacks to influence other members to change the Committee’s decision.

Source:  Master GMAT

JohnWidestone · Answer

(A) The president of Vendo met with the university’s administration, and they ordered the Committee to rescind its instructions.
 This would contradict the information given in the statement, or could also be seen as a violation of the instructions given by the committee

(B) Vendo continued prices at the prescribed levels but reduced the size of the snacks vended in the machines.
 The given instructions are not violated however the prices have increased relatively

(C) Vendo ignored the Committee’s instructions and continued to raise prices.
 This would be a violation of instructions

(D) Vendo decided it could not make a fair return on its investment if it held the line on prices, so it removed its machines from the Dormitory Canteen.
 This would contradict the information given in the statement

(E) Representatives of Vendo met with members of the Dormitory Canteen Committee and offered them free snacks to influence other members to change the Committee’s decision.
 This would also contradict the information given in the statement

debjit1990 · Answer

Ans: B

B) Vendo continued prices at the prescribed levels but reduced the size of the snacks vended in the machines.

The given instructions are not violated but the price has increased.

hrusher · Answer

not getting the stimulus(Argument), can anyone please elaborate ??
And the logic behind the argument, so that one can come to the right answer choice easily.

Sajjad1994 · Answer

Official Explanation

One way of  “making more money”  other than raising the price of a product is to decrease the size or quality of the product. This is what Vendo must have done. By doing so, Vendo accomplished the equivalent of a price increase without actually raising the price.

(C)  contradicts the paragraph that states that Vendo did not violate the letter of the instructions—that is, the literal meaning—though they did violate the intention.

(D)  also contradicts the paragraph. Had Vendo forfeited the franchise, that would have been within the letter of the  “either-or”  wording of the instructions.

(A)  and  (E)  require much speculation beyond the information given, and you should not indulge yourself in imaginative thinking when there is an obvious answer such as  (B)  available.

The correct answer is (B).

RonTargetTestPrep · Answer

I don't recommend using this problem, because it's not formatted like GMAC's problems.

The departure from GMAC protocol is not small—it's actually the core task in the problem statement that's compromised here.
Specifically... you're supposed to find a way to 
  thwart the intent  of the Committee’s instructions without actually violating the letter of those instructions 
(...where  this part  is your core task.)

At this point, though, you may notice a BIG problem: 
  WHAT  "intent" ?

The problem never SAYS what the "intent" is!
You're supposed to just... kinda... wave your hands around and 'get' that the intent is to keep clients'/consumers' overall amount spent at the vending machines from increasing any further.
That's not acceptably rigorous for a standardized test, and GMAC's problems don't work that way.   Any element of an argument that's MENTIONED IN THE PROBLEM will ••ALWAYS•• BE EXPLICITLY STATED in the text of the passage.

If you have to "weaken a conclusion", then the passage text ••WILL•• EXPLICITLY STATE that 'conclusion'.

If you have to "call into question whether a manager's plan will meet its goal", then the passage text ••WILL•• EXPLICITLY STATE that 'goal'.

etc etc.

For this problem to be worth studying, it MUST have a passage that  explicitly states the 'intent' that you're supposed to circumvent . That doesn't happen, so this problem is not useful as a practice item for the GMAT (and may even undermine what you've learned, either consciously or subconsciously, about the formatting of GMAC's problems.)

RonTargetTestPrep · Answer

By the way, I found the official problem on which this one was almost certainly based. Please study the linked problem—which is an official, GMAC-produced problem, and therefore follows all the requisite conventions—instead of the one in this thread.

https://gmatclub.com/forum/for-several- ... 82043.html

The Dormitory Canteen Committee decided that the prices of snacks in t

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

The Dormitory Canteen Committee decided that the prices of snacks in t

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