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Difficulty: MediumDistinguishing Inferences from Assumptions and Speculations

A logistics company recorded data for all cargo shipments dispatched from Depot Alpha during 2025. In that year, every shipment containing perishable food items was transported in a refrigerated truck, and every shipment transported in a refrigerated truck arrived at its destination on schedule. Exactly 30 percent of all cargo shipments dispatched from Depot Alpha in 2025 contained perishable food items.

Which of the following statements can be properly inferred from the passage above?

  1. Every cargo shipment containing perishable food items dispatched from Depot Alpha in 2025 arrived at its destination on schedule.Answer
  2. B
    Refrigerated trucks were used exclusively for transporting perishable cargo shipments from Depot Alpha in 2025.
  3. C
    Depot Alpha achieved a higher overall on-schedule delivery rate in 2025 than it did in 2024.
  4. D
    Any cargo shipment dispatched from Depot Alpha in 2025 that arrived on schedule must have contained perishable food items.
  5. E
    At least 70 percent of all cargo shipments dispatched from Depot Alpha in 2025 failed to arrive at their destinations on schedule.

Answer

Every cargo shipment containing perishable food items dispatched from Depot Alpha in 2025 arrived at its destination on schedule.
The stimulus establishes two universal rules: every perishable shipment was transported in a refrigerated truck, and every shipment in a refrigerated truck arrived on schedule. Linking these premises directly proves that every perishable shipment dispatched from Depot Alpha in 2025 arrived at its destination on schedule.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Extract the explicit factual premises from the stimulus
Premise 1: Perishable shipment -> Refrigerated truck. Premise 2: Refrigerated truck -> Arrived on schedule. Premise 3: 30 percent of shipments were perishable.
Inference questions require relying solely on given premises without introducing unstated assumptions.
2
Apply transitive conditional logic to Premises 1 and 2
If a shipment is perishable, it was in a refrigerated truck; if it was in a refrigerated truck, it arrived on schedule. Therefore, Perishable shipment -> Arrived on schedule.
Combining two universal statements creates a valid deductive chain.
3
Evaluate the options against the deduced chain
The statement asserting that all perishable shipments arrived on schedule must strictly be true.
A valid GMAT inference must be 100 percent guaranteed by the stimulus.

Key Concept

Distinguishing Inferences from Assumptions and Speculations
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Distinguishing Inferences from Assumptions and Speculations

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