Fiction Vs Non Fiction

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Fiction Vs Non Fiction

by adi_800 » Fri Jul 30, 2010 7:29 pm
A survey recently revealed a high correlation between a household level of education and its library. Specifcially the more years of college and graduation school education recieved by the household members, the more books in the household library. The survey also indicated that the higher the education level of the house hold the greater the percentage of books that are not works of fiction in its library.

Which of the following can be properly inferred from the survey cited above?

A. People with higher levels of education prefer reading nonfiction to work of fiction.

B.Household with low education level generally own more works of fiction than do household with higher education levels.

C.House with lower levels of education generally own more works of fiction than nonfiction

D.The higher the education level of household the fewer works of fiction owned by the household

E.Household with high education level generally own more nonfiction books than do household with low education
Source: — Critical Reasoning |

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by uwhusky » Fri Jul 30, 2010 7:40 pm
Tricky question of equating percentage with actual number.

I like E the best...

A. People with higher levels of education prefer reading nonfiction to work of fiction.
Stimulus says "hold the greater the percentage of books that are not works of fiction in its library", but having the books is not the same as prefer "reading" the books.
B.Household with low education level generally own more works of fiction than do household with higher education levels.
Unsupported claim.
C.House with lower levels of education generally own more works of fiction than nonfiction
Unsupported. The stimulus says that higher education owns great percentage, but greater percentage could simply mean 10% over 8%, and not majority.
D.The higher the education level of household the fewer works of fiction owned by the household
Stimulus says higher percentage of non-fiction, but it does not necessary mean that the actual number is higher.
E.Household with high education level generally own more nonfiction books than do household with low education
Higher education generally has more books, and generally higher percentage of non-fiction. Therefore this is probably the closest to say that high education level generally owns more nonfiction books than do lower education.
Yep.

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by selango » Fri Jul 30, 2010 7:59 pm
IMO E

Other options are unsupported.
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by adi_800 » Fri Jul 30, 2010 8:06 pm
D and E both say about numbers wen information given is about percentage..
why D is wrong?

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by The Jock » Fri Jul 30, 2010 8:09 pm
My take E
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by uwhusky » Fri Jul 30, 2010 8:19 pm
adi_800 wrote:D and E both say about numbers wen information given is about percentage..
why D is wrong?
One of the chapters in Powersource CR Bible says that when stimulus mentions percentage, an answer that talks about number is almost always incorrect, and the same vice versa.

The reason why D is incorrect is because D says:

"The higher the education level of household the fewer works of fiction owned by the household"

but the stimulus says:

"The survey also indicated that the higher the education level of the house hold the greater the percentage of books that are not works of fiction in its library. "

Greater percentage could simply means that 15% of all the books being non-fictional is higher than 10% own by someone with lower education level. But the person owning only 10% could have 1000 books, whereas the person owning 15% could only have 100 books.
Yep.

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by amritashwar_lal2k » Fri Jul 30, 2010 10:05 pm
IMO E

I agree with the explanation of "uwhusky"

This is definitely the question of Number and percentages

1) Education levels is proportional to Number of books

Ex- Level 1 --- 100 books
Level 2 ---- 200 books

----- highest level - 10000 books

2) Higher the education - more the percentage of books non-fiction

Ex - Level 1 -- F (50%=50) / NF (50%=50) /Total(100)

Level 2 -- F(40%= 80) / NF (60% = 120)/ Total(200)

With these to points in minds

A. Preference may not be related to cause. It could be mandatory to read more non-fiction to be more educated. So out of context

B.See the point two above. Person at level 2 had more fiction books

C. See the point above, at level 1 number of fiction books = number of non-fiction books

D.Again as per the point mentioned above, it does not follows

E. The only correct one.