We know that altogether microwave popcorn accounts for a little over half of the money from sales of microwave food products. That means that altogether microwave popcorn accounts for a little over 50% of the money from sales of microwave foods products, i.e. most or a majority. We also know that microwave popcorn takes three minutes to pop, whereas conventional popcorn takes seven.
(A) is incorrect because we are not given any information about single brands of microwave popcorn. We only know information about all brands of microwave popcorn as a whole. Therefore, we cannot say that no single brand of microwave popcorn accounts for a large share of microwave food product sales.
(B) is incorrect because we do not know how many brands of other microwave food products there are. Thus, we cannot make a definitive comparison.
(C) is incorrect because we do not know how much microwave popcorn as opposed to conventional popcorn is sold by volume. We merely know that microwave popcorn, by weight, is more expensive than conventional popcorn.
(D) is CORRECT because microwave popcorn makes up a majority of the money sales from microwave food products (i.e. more than half) and microwave popcorn takes three minutes to pop in the microwave. Therefore, it must be true that more money is spent on microwave food products that take three minutes or less to cook than on microwave food products that take longer to cook. As such, answer choice (D) is the correct answer.
(E) is incorrect because we do not know how many microwave food products, popcorn or otherwise, are available on the market. Therefore, we cannot say that it must be true that of the total number of microwave food products on the market, most are microwave popcorn products.
Hope that was helpful! Let me know if you have any other questions.
CrystalNovember 22, 2016
However, we do not know if other microwave food takes longer or shorter than 3 mins to cook, do we?
CrystalNovember 22, 2016
But we don't know if other microwave food takes longer or shorter than 3mins do we?
MehranDecember 1, 2016
@Crystal not sure I am understanding your question.
(D) is the correct answer here because it is directly supported by the first sentence:
"There are about 75 brands of microwave popcorn on the market; altogether, they account for a little over half of the money from sales of microwave food products."
And the first part of the second sentence:
"It takes three minutes to pop corn in the microwave . . ."
So microwave popcorn, which takes 3 minutes to cook, accounts for a little over half of the money from sales of microwave food products.
As such, it must be true that "more money is spent on microwave food products that take three minutes or less to cook than on microwave food products that take longer to cook."
Hope this helps! Please let us know if you have any other questions.
MarieDecember 18, 2017
Ok, I do understand that the question states that "by weight microwave popcorn costs over five times as much as conventional popcorn. Judging by the popularity of microwave popcorn, *many* people are willing to pay a high price for just a little additional convenience."
So it states, yes, that some people are prepared to pay more for microwave popcorn than for conventional popcorn but it doesn't say whether overall more microwave popcorn is sold than coventional popcorn. So we don't know whether more money is spent on MW popcorn than on Conventional popcorn in the overall market. We only know that some people (doesn't say how much of the market share) will pay more for MW Popcorn. So considering that I thought D would be incorrect. Its way its stated - its ambiguous.
MarieDecember 18, 2017
sorry I posted this in the incorrect place - apologies :-)
