The United States will soon begin spot-checking all shipments of impor

Question

The United States will soon begin spot-checking all shipments of imported coffee for tainting by sandfly larvae. Any coffee found to be so tainted will be destroyed. Officials predict that the spot checks will result in the destruction of approximately 10 percent of all coffee imported into this country. Even so, the checks will miss about half of the tainted coffee sent here, since it is estimated that 20 percent of all coffee worldwide is tainted by sandfly larvae.

The information in the passage above best supports which of the following conclusions?

(A) The amount of imported coffee available for consumption in the United States may soon decrease.

(B) The United States should learn to rely more on domestically produced coffee.

(C) The United States will eventually be forced to inspect all imported coffee for tainting by sandfly larvae.

(D) Coffee producers worldwide will implement a more rigorous program of insect control.

(E) The U.S. consumer will begin paying less for imported coffee in the future.

Bunuel · Accepted Answer

Official Explanation

Identify the Question Type:

This asks for a conclusion based on the passage, so it's an Inference question.

Untangle the Stimulus:

The stimulus indicates that the US will begin spot checking imported coffee for sandfly larvae; this will likely result in 10% of the coffee being destroyed, but it will also miss about half of the tainted coffee, since 20% worldwide is tainted.

Predict the Answer:

It's often impossible to predict an answer to an Inference question. Just keep the facts from the stimulus in mind and look for what must be true.

Evaluate the Choices:

(A) is supported and is thus correct.  Spot checks will destroy 10 percent of imported coffee, so it is logical to expect a drop in consumable imported coffee. While there is the potential to avoid this drop (e.g., increase the amount of coffee imported to offset the coffee destroyed), (A) accounts for that by saying the amount "may" soon decrease. By avoiding extreme language, (A) if deducible.

The argument is simply describes a problem, so there's no support for any particular solution such as the one in (B). There's no support for the drastic conclusion in (C) that all coffee will have to be checked. Nor is there support for (D)'s conclusion about the reaction of coffee producers. (E) is incorrect because coffee prices, like these other issues, are also unpredictable.

TAKEAWAY:  In an Inference question, focus on what must be true, not just what is possibly true.

ElninoEffect · Answer

(A) The amount of imported coffee available for consumption in the United States may soon decrease.
 Yes. Since 10% of those are already removed + those tainted cannot be used.

(B) The United States should learn to rely more on domestically produced coffee.
 We cannot infer that.
 
(C) The United States will eventually be forced to inspect all imported coffee for tainting by sandfly larvae.
 We cannot infer that.

(D) Coffee producers worldwide will implement a more rigorous program of insect control.
 Irrelevant.

(E) The U.S. consumer will begin paying less for imported coffee in the future.
 How can we know that.?

ludicrous · Answer

'Amount' is the word that threw me away. I was 100% inclined towards this option - but I was unable to convince myself just because "Amount" relates to an absolute term rather than percentages. Can anyone explain this?

awesome_burst · Answer

I was also confused but I dont think so this is the case of amount and percentages in traditional sense. No other option fits. C is a close competitor but why would US increase spot checking to 100% this aint the premise for it. These statements only point closely to option A.

A traditional Amount % questions states: 
% of females decreasing in a class => number of females are reduced. Now thats wrong because it could be plausible that number of males have increased .

What this question is stating: 
10% of imported coffee will be destroyed -amount of imported coffee will reduce. Now this is the only way it is possible. If it is X last year it will be 0.9X this year. Definitely reduced.

Hope it makes sense.

Basilio2 · Answer

option A is the answer since it "Must be True" while option C,"could be True" hence wrong

bharathhr · Answer

previously,was coffe tainted with sandfly used for drinking , i mean if it wasnt used for drinking, then destroying them won't decrease amount of coffee available to drink

PeanutButter429 · Answer

I was unsure about A because % does not translate directly to absolute numbers, so let's say in 2024 100 tons of coffee is imported, but in 2025 when they start checking, 120 tons were imported, 120*0.9 > 100 tons.

laborumplaceat · Answer

If some of the coffee which is tainted is destroyed - it means that it is no longer available to use - so the amount of coffee available for use will decrease. So, A should be correct.

The United States will soon begin spot-checking all shipments of impor

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The United States will soon begin spot-checking all shipments of impor

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