PrepTest 102 · Section 3 · Question 13

Grandpa's Apple Deal

Grandpa's apple tree was loaded. Owen leaned over the fence. "Mr. G, I'll pick every apple for you. Deal is, you get one basket out of every ten. I keep the rest." Grandpa scratched his beard. "One out of ten? That's stingy. I'll pick them myself." Tommy whispered to Priya, "Is that smart?" Priya thought. "Only if Grandpa ends up with more than one basket in ten. His knees are creaky. If he only reaches the low branches, and the rest rot, he might get less." Lulu wrote: The deal being stingy is not enough. Doing it yourself has to beat the deal. Grandpa, hearing this, quietly went to find a ladder. Mr. Whiskers watched from the porch, unimpressed.

Owen offers to pick Grandpa's apples and give him one basket out of every ten. Since that share is so small, Grandpa would do better to pick the apples himself.

Which assumption does the argument need?

The Lost-and-Found Bargain

A school sued a cleaning crew over a deal. The crew had offered: "We will hunt down every lost sweater in the building and give the school back one out of every five we find." The principal refused, saying, "With a share that small, we should search ourselves." Mr. Whitfield, for the crew, smiled. "Your Honor, the school's own search last year found two sweaters out of a hundred. That is far less than one in five." Judge Rowe frowned at the principal. "Your reasoning only works if searching yourselves would get back more than the crew's share. Did you check?" The principal looked at the floor, where, oddly, there was a sweater.