From GMAT Prep

[polter]

Malik's recipe for 2 servings of a certain dish requires 1 1/2cups of pasta, according to this reciepe, what us the number of cups of pasta that Malik will use the next time he prepares the dish?
(1) The next time he prepares the dish, Malik will make half as many servings as he did the last time he prepared the dish.
(2) Malik used 6 cups of pasta the last time he prepared the dish.

My Logic:
From (1) then next time pasta cups = (current serving/ 2)* (pasta/ serving) = 2/2 * 3/2 * 1/2 = 3/4
From (2) not sure of the servings, hence not sufficient by itself.
Hence A

OA Correct - C

[Anurag@Gurome]

Malik's recipe for 2 servings of a certain dish requires 1 1/2cups of pasta, according to this reciepe, what us the number of cups of pasta that Malik will use the next time he prepares the dish?
(1) The next time he prepares the dish, Malik will make half as many servings as he did the last time he prepared the dish.
(2) Malik used 6 cups of pasta the last time he prepared the dish.

My Logic:
From (1) then next time pasta cups = (current serving/ 2)* (pasta/ serving) = 2/2 * 3/2 * 1/2 = 3/4
From (2) not sure of the servings, hence not sufficient by itself.
Hence A

OA Correct - C

The language of the questions is a little bit tricky. If you read it again, it is not mentioned in the question that Malik used 1 1/2cups of pasta for 2 servings this time. So, when we don't know about the no. of servings he made this time then we can't say anything about the servings he made next time.
So, (1) is NOT SUFFICIENT.
(2) is also NOT SUFFICIENT.

Combining (1) and (2), we know that he used 6 cups of pasta the last time, so this time he will use 3 cups of pasta.

The correct answer is C.

[polter]

Hi Anurag,

Thanks for your response.
But, "for 2 servings of a certain dish requires 1 1/2cups of pasta"
means that 2 servings requires 3/2 cups of pasta, doesn't it?

I am not getting this still.
Appreciate your thoughts/ clarifications.

-Polter

[Anurag@Gurome]

Hi Anurag,

Thanks for your response.
But, "for 2 servings of a certain dish requires 1 1/2cups of pasta"
means that 2 servings requires 3/2 cups of pasta, doesn't it?

I am not getting this still.
Appreciate your thoughts/ clarifications.

-Polter

That's right, for 2 servings of a certain dish requires 1 1/2cups of pasta, but it is nowhere mentioned in the main question that Malik used 3/2cups of pasta for 2 servings this time. This information is only given in statement 2.

[djiddish98]

This question almost seems like it belongs in the verbal, since getting the answer requires reading the question correctly and not making assumptions.

The recipe is 2 servings requires 3/2 cups of pasta, which is just a proportion.

However, he could have made 100 servings or just 2. As Anurag pointed out, it doesn't mention how many servings he just made.

[Anurag@Gurome]

This question almost seems like it belongs in the verbal, since getting the answer requires reading the question correctly and not making assumptions.

The recipe is 2 servings requires 3/2 cups of pasta, which is just a proportion.

However, he could have made 100 servings or just 2. As Anurag pointed out, it doesn't mention how many servings he just made.

Agree, this one is really tricky! One may get confused by its language very easily.

[polter]

Got it this time.

Bottom-line: if something is needed does not necessarily imply that it was provided.

Thanks a lot for your patience, Anurag.

[Anurag@Gurome]

Got it this time.

Bottom-line: if something is needed does not necessarily imply that it was provided.

Thanks a lot for your patience, Anurag.

Great. You are welcome!