Comcorp Shipping Clerk: Last week, no shipments of building supplies were sent out on Friday. The five specially ordered shipments sent out last week were sent out on Thursday, and each of those specially ordered shipments consisted entirely of building supplies. Four shipments were sent to Truax Construction last week, none of which consisted of building supplies.
If the shipping clerk’s statements are true, which of the following must also be true?
A. All of Comcorp’s shipments of building supplies last week were specially ordered.
B. None of Comcorp’s shipments sent on Friday of last week was sent to Truax Construction.
C. None of the shipments sent by Comcorp by Truax Construction last week was specially ordered.
D. None of Comcorp’s shipments sent on Thursday of last week was sent to Truax Construction.
E. All of Comcorp’s shipments of building supplies last week were sent out on Thursday.
Solution
Passage Analysis
Comcorp Shipping Clerk: Last week, no shipments of building supplies were sent out on Friday.
This statement tells us that Comcorp did not send out any shipments of building supplies on Friday last week. So, it could have sent out shipments of other supplies on Friday—but none of the Friday shipments consisted of building supplies.
The five specially ordered shipments sent out last week were sent out on Thursday, and each of those specially ordered shipments consisted entirely of building supplies.
This statement tells us that there were only five shipments sent out last week that were specially ordered. The use of ‘the’ before ‘five specially ordered shipments’ tells us that there were no more than five specially ordered shipments sent last week. These five shipments were all of building supplies and were all sent on Thursday.
Four shipments were sent to Truax Construction last week, none of which consisted of building supplies.
This part tells us that Comcorp sent four shipments to its customer, Truax Construction, last week. None of Truax’s shipments consisted of building supplies.
Pre-thinking
If the shipping clerk’s statements are true, which of the following must also be true?
The question stem asks us to identify a statement that can be inferred from the given information.
First, let’s identify all the information given in the passage about shipments sent by Comcorp last week.
- No building supplies were sent on Friday.
- All five specially ordered shipments were sent on Thursday, and all five consisted only of building supplies.
- Four shipments were sent to Truax, and none of these consisted of building supplies.
What can we derive from this information? First, from (2), we can infer that there were no special orders sent out last week for shipments other than building supplies. We can also infer from this statement that there were no specially ordered shipments sent on any day last week other than Thursday.
Also, from the information given about Truax, we can infer that no specially ordered shipment was sent to Truax last week, since none of its shipments consisted of building supplies, and all the specially ordered shipments consisted of building supplies.
Analysis of Option Statements
A. All of Comcorp’s shipments of building supplies last week were specially ordered.
This option is incorrect. The passage says that all five specially ordered shipments sent last week consisted of building supplies. This does not mean that only five shipments of building supplies were sent last week. Other shipments of building supplies that were not specially ordered could have been sent last week.
B. None of Comcorp’s shipments sent on Friday of last week was sent to Truax Construction.
This option is incorrect. The only information given in the passage about Friday is that none of Friday’s shipments consisted of building supplies. Since none of the shipments sent to Truax last week consisted of building supplies, one or more of other shipments could have been sent to Truax on Friday.
C. None of the shipments sent by Comcorp to Truax Construction last week was specially ordered.
We know from the passage that all five specially ordered shipments sent last week were for building supplies. Since none of the four orders sent to Truax consisted of building supplies, it can correctly be derived from the passage that none of the specially ordered shipments was sent to Truax. This is the correct answer.
D. None of Comcorp’s shipments sent on Thursday of last week was sent to Truax Construction.
This option is incorrect. The passage does not tell us how many shipments were sent on Thursday. All five specially ordered shipments, which consisted of building supplies, were sent on Thursday. But there could also have been other shipments sent on Thursday that were not specially ordered, and one or more of these could have been sent to Truax.
E. All of Comcorp’s shipments of building supplies last week were sent out on Thursday.
This option is incorrect. We know from the passage that all five specially ordered shipments sent last week were sent on Thursday, and that all of these five shipments consisted of building supplies. This does not mean that only five shipments of building supplies were sent on Thursday. Other shipments of building supplies that were not specially ordered could have been sent on Thursday.
-Solution created by Meghna Mudaliar.
