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Information and IdeasVery hardInference from three figures together

Information and Ideas practice question

A supermarket's 'buy one, get one free' offers raised sales of the featured products by 40 percent. Total sales for the month, however, were unchanged, and the store's waste-collection bills went up. The likeliest reading of these figures is that ____

Which choice most logically completes the text?

  1. A. customers bought the featured items instead of other goods and threw some of the surplus away.Correct
  2. B. the offers brought in a large number of new customers.
  3. C. the store's suppliers raised their prices.
  4. D. customers stopped shopping at the store.

Answer: A. customers bought the featured items instead of other goods and threw some of the surplus away.

Featured sales up, total flat: substitution. Waste bills up: the extra free items weren't all used.

Why the other answers are wrong

B. the offers brought in a large number of new customers.
New customers would have raised total sales, which were unchanged.
C. the store's suppliers raised their prices.
Supplier prices aren't mentioned and wouldn't explain the waste bills.
D. customers stopped shopping at the store.
Total sales were unchanged, so customers kept shopping.

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