Field rations have always been a compromise between calories, weight, and how much a hungry soldier will actually eat rather than discard. Early canned rations solved the first problem and failed badly at the third; soldiers traded away or buried cans of foods no one wanted, so the calories on paper were never the calories actually eaten in the field. Modern ration developers now test recipes with focus groups the way a food company would, tracking which items come back uneaten from field exercises, on the theory that a ration eaten completely, even if slightly less optimal on paper, outperforms a better one left in the mud.
It can be inferred from the passage that early canned rations failed primarily because
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Correct answer to question 103 (Paragraph Comprehension): soldiers did not want to eat many of the foods included
Method
The passage says soldiers traded away or buried cans of foods no one wanted, so the calories on paper were never eaten, pointing to unwanted food rather than weight or spoilage as the failure.
Updated: November 2026
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