PrepTest 144 · Section 2 · Question 7

Tommy's Stand Goes Local

Tommy's stand used to sell bottled juice. Kids from all over town ordered bottles, and Owen biked them across the river in his wagon. Then Tommy discovered face painting. Tigers! Butterflies! A dinosaur for Kevin! Soon the stand was mostly face painting. But Tommy noticed something odd. "Fewer orders from across the river. What happened?" Priya studied the sign. "Owen can't bike a face painting across the river. The customer has to sit in your chair." Lulu wrote: Bottles travel. Faces stay put. "So the more face painting we do," Tommy said slowly, "the more our customers are just neighbors." "Exactly," said Priya. Biscuit got a lightning bolt painted on his ear and refused to wash it for a week.

Tommy's stand has shifted from selling bottled juice to mostly offering face painting. Over the same time, it has had fewer and fewer customers from across town.

Which choice, if true, would best explain the drop in customers from across town?

The Tailor's Shrinking Map

A tailor sued her delivery company. "I used to ship shirts all over the country," she told Judge Reyes. "Now most of my work is fitting and altering, and my long-distance shipments have nearly vanished. I think the delivery company is losing my packages!" Mr. Whitfield, for the delivery company, stood up. "Your Honor, an alteration needs the customer standing in the shop for measurements. You can't pin a hem through the mail. As the tailor's work shifted toward fittings, her customers naturally became local." The judge nodded. "That explains the vanished shipments without any lost boxes." The tailor frowned. "I suppose I did stop mailing pins."