PrepTest 148, Section 4, Question 12
On average, cats fed canned cat food eat(45 more words not shown)
Which one of the following(8 more words not shown)
- AOn average, cats(16 more words not shown)
- BTypically, cats are(11 more words not shown)
- CHow much it(21 more words not shown)
- DOn average, it(30 more words not shown)
- ECanned cat food(10 more words not shown)
Reading the argument
Fewer ounces doesn't necessarily mean fewer calories. If each ounce contains more calories, a smaller portion could supply as many calories as a larger portion of dry food. We would need the actual amounts to know how the totals compare.
What we’re looking for
My first reaction to the price difference is that food prices could reflect more than calories: manufacturing or transportation, for example. But we haven't been given evidence establishing what sets these prices. Those are possibilities, not conclusions. For this inference question, we need to work with what the passage actually tells us about the amount eaten and the amount spent.
Working the answers
- A
More calories per ounce combined with fewer ounces doesn't settle total calories. A smaller serving of a richer food could contain more, fewer, or the same number of calories as a larger serving of a less-dense food. Without the amounts, we can't infer the direction of the overall difference.
- B
The passage compares cats eating two types of food; it doesn't say those types exhaust cats' typical diets. Cats might also eat other foods. We can't turn a comparison between canned and dry food into a claim about what cats generally are fed.
- C
Nothing establishes that calorie density is the only determinant of cost. Other factors might matter. But we also shouldn't claim the passage proves C false: a pricing rule based only on calorie density could, in principle, produce a higher daily cost for the more calorie-dense food. We simply aren't told how prices are set.
- D
This generalizes about cats eating fewer ounces versus more ounces, without preserving the difference in food type. For two cats eating the same food, the one eating fewer ounces could cost less to feed. The passage's comparison of smaller canned portions with larger dry portions doesn't establish D's general relationship.
- ECorrect
The canned-food portion is smaller, yet it costs more. That points to a higher cost per ounce. Try the comparison with simple numbers: five ounces of canned food costing $10 works out to $2 per ounce. Ten ounces of dry food costing $5 works out to 50 cents per ounce.
Those are illustrative numbers, not the study's figures. The important relationship is that the canned option costs more even though you're buying fewer ounces. The higher daily expense cannot be explained by buying a larger quantity of that food; its price per ounce is higher.
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