GMAT Question of the Day

January 14, 2014

 

 

Every weekday, GMAT Hacks publishes a realistic GMAT practice question. In general, you'll see Quant problems on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, and Verbal questions on Tuesday and Thursday. You'll always be able to find them at www.gmathacks.com/daily.

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Today's Practice GMAT Question:

Economist: The law of demand predicts that as the price of a good goes down, demand for that good will increase, and vice-versa. In a recent experiment, economists gave coupons for rice to families in a province of China, where it is a staple food. The coupons effectively lowered the cost of rice, and should have led the families to buy more of it. Instead, households given the coupons purchased less rice than a control group who did not receive coupons.
 
Which of the following, if true, most helps to explain the amount of rice purchased by families who received coupons?
(A) Chinese families spend an unusually high proportion of their income on rice.
(B) The prices of staple goods, including foodstuffs such as rice, do not fluctuate as much as those of non-necessary goods, such as consumer electronics.
(C) In the months before and after the experiment, the average per-family consumption of rice in the Chinese province steadily decreased.
(D) Many of the families given coupons discovered that they could sell the coupons on the black market.
(E) The availability of the coupons meant that families had more money to spend on other things, including more expensive substitutes for rice.


 

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Need more work in this area? In Total GMAT Verbal, there is an entire chapter, including practice problems, that covers Explanation questions.

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About the author: Jeff Sackmann has written many GMAT preparation books, including the popular Total GMAT Math, Total GMAT Verbal, and GMAT 111. He has also created explanations for problems in The Official Guide, as well as 1,800 practice GMAT math questions.

Total GMAT Verbal

The comprehensive guide to the GMAT Verbal section. Recognize, dissect, and master every question type you'll face on the test. Everything you need, all in one place, including 100+ realistic practice questions.
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