Assume that any increase of 5% or more from...

[BernardK777]

MSR question

Tab 1: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B18MG4 ... sp=sharing

Tab2:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B18MG4 ... sp=sharing

Tab3:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B18MG4 ... sp=sharing

Question:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B18MG4 ... sp=sharing


I have an issue with the wording of the question stem. It says that "any increase of 5% ore more from one century to the next in the AMOUNT of a given food consumed by Barras residents...". In order for the third statement in the question to be Yes we have to rely on tab 2 and note the 5% increase in grain as percent of total food consumption.

Here is what I don't understand. Tab 2 only gives percentages of dietary items over time. It DOES NOT give the actual amounts in pounds. So I thought I could NOT infer that a 5% increase in percentage of overall consumption in grain resulted in 5% increase in the amount of grain consumed. For example, what if overall food consumed per person decreased in the AD 700s relative to the AD 600s. What am I missing here?

Thanks for the help.

[tim]

Sorry, we can't see the questions. Can you try to post them again and make sure they show up properly?

[BernardK777]

Sorry about that. I have edited my original post, so the image links should work now.

[tim]

This question definitely isn't worded very precisely, but any potential objections don't change the correct answers. In the case of the issue you raise, for instance, please note that the first tab implies that over time, total food consumption per person rose throughout this period.

[RonPurewal]

.

[RonPurewal]

for the second question, you can use the table titled "estimated average monthly meat and seafood consumption".
meat consumption in the 900's was more than twice what it was in the 800's, so there's no question at all about this one.

in terms of total food consumption—that would have grown even more, since the population of barras increased continuously over the given centuries (as per the text in the tab you provided).

[RonPurewal]

.3rd question:

• looking at your tabs #2 and #3, we can see the following:

1/ (from seafood):
in the 600's, 240/4 = 60 pounds was about %65 of an average person's monthly diet.
in the 700's, 250/4 = 62.5 pounds was about the same percentage.
(two pounds of fish a day! um... yeah.)

2/ (from meat)
in the 600's, 37/4 = 9.25 pounds was about %10 of an average person's monthly diet.
in the 700's, 38/4 = 9.5 pounds was about the same percentage.

looking at either of these (we don't need both), we can determine that the overall amount of food in people's diets stayed about the same from the 600's to the 700's.


• now, think about grain.
in the 600's, the total amount of grain was about %10 of the entire diet.
in the 700's, it was about %15 of the diet.
since the total amounts were approximately the same, that's an increase from %10 of some amount to %15 of basically the same amount.
that's an increase of about fifty percent. definitely more than five percent!

[RonPurewal]

by the way, you should be sure NOT to confuse the following two things:

• changes measured in percents (which are VERY often tested on this exam)
... this is your normal "difference/original x 100%" thing. it can be used if the "difference" and "original" amounts are absolute numbers (as in most cases), but also if those figures are themselves expressed as percentages.

• changes measured in percentage points (which have NEVER been tested on this exam).
... this is the difference between a starting and ending percentage. (if the starting and ending values are not percentages, then the notion of "percentage points" is nonsense.)

for instance, if an interest rate rises from 4 percent to 7 percent, then that's an increase of only 7 – 4 = 3 percentage points—but it's an increase of 75 percent. (the latter works just like an increase in, say, a dog's weight from 4 kilograms to 7 kilograms.)