CR Challenge -1

[abhasjha]

Most regular coffee is made from arabica coffee beans because the great majority
of consumers prefer its generally richer flavor to that of coffee made from robusta
beans. Coffee drinkers who switch to decaffeinated coffee, however,
overwhelmingly prefer coffee made from robusta beans, which are unlike arabica
beans in that their flavors is not as greatly affected by decaffeination. Depending
on the type of bean involved, decaffeination reduces or removes various
substances, most of which are flavor-neutral but one of which contributes to the
richness of the coffee’s flavor.

The statements above provide the most support for which one of the following
conclusion?

(A) The annual world crop of arabica beans is not large enough to satisfy
completely the world demand for regular coffee.

(B) Arabica beans contain more caffeine per unit of weight than do robusta beans.

(C) Coffee drinkers who drink decaffeinated coffee almost exclusively are the
ones who prefer regular coffee made from robusta beans to regular coffee
made from arabica beans.

(D) Decaffeination of arabica beans extracts more of the substance that enhances
a coffee’s flavor than does decaffeination of robusta beans.

(E) There are coffee drinkers who switch from drinking regular coffee made from arabica beans to drinking decaffeinated coffee made from arabica beans because coffee made from arabica beans is less costly


Please substantiate your answer with reasoning rather than just writing IMO A, B, C, D and E

Source of the question - December LSAT , 1994

[thoughtrunner]

I would say D: unlike aribica beans, robusta beans not as greatly affected by removal of substances/ good flavors via decaffeination

A. is out of scope

B. it's plausible that aribica has more caffeine per unit weight. but caffiene-density of beans is not discussed. decaffeination removing substances is discussed

C. the argument says coffee drinkers who "switch " to decaf overwhelmingly prefer robusta, so not "al"l decaf drinkers. and 'exclusivly prefer' seems too strong

E. out of scope - nothing said about cost

[RonPurewal]

I would say D: unlike aribica beans, robusta beans not as greatly affected by removal of substances/ good flavors via decaffeination

A. is out of scope

B. it's plausible that aribica has more caffeine per unit weight. but caffiene-density of beans is not discussed. decaffeination removing substances is discussed

C. the argument says coffee drinkers who "switch " to decaf overwhelmingly prefer robusta, so not "al"l decaf drinkers. and 'exclusivly prefer' seems too strong

E. out of scope - nothing said about cost

yes, this post pretty much gets it.

on problems like this one - i.e., problems that fall into the DRAW THE CONCLUSION category - [b]you have to pick answer choices that are NECESSARY based ONLY ON THE INFORMATION IN THE PASSAGE.[/i]

while the other choices are mostly reasonable, they all contain things that are WAY out of the scope of the passage, and which may or may not be true.
as soon as one of these choices contains something that may or may not be true, the answer is wrong.