Logical reasoning PrepTest 116 · Section 3 · Question 24

Incorrect. There are no two conditionals that can be chained together, so we can't have a conditional inference. This answer is too strong.

Correct. Argument or Facts:
Facts

Question Type:
Must Be True

Stimulus Summary:
(1) Recent grads—some—Work environment important
(2) Recent grads—most—not Work environment important
(3) Recent grads → Salary important
(4) Stress level important → Veteran employee
(5) Recent grads → Vacation policy important

Answer Anticipation:
That's a lot of conditional and quantified statements. Before we start making inferences, let's cover how we got them, and let's see if we can get statement #4 to play nice with the others (i.e., share a term with them).

The first statement talks about only some" recent grads. That definitely guarantees that some do consider work environment important statement #1. However, since it's "only" some, it also guarantees that most don't consider it important—statement #2.

Statements #3 and #5 are relatively straightforward conditionals.

Statement #4 is a conditional, but it can feel like a quantifier because of the "a few" in there. However, the conditional indicator ("the only") introduces a sufficient condition, and we can say that everyone who considers stress level important is a veteran employee. The "a few" let's us say that some veteran employees consider stress levels important, but that's an implication of the conditional (you can make a conditional weaker and have it still be valid, and some statements are reversible), so let's keep this as the conditional.

However, let's see if we can get that statement to line up with the others, all of which have Recent grads as a term. In this statement, Veteran employee is the related term. Can we draw a relationship between them? Well, someone who isn't a recent grad isn't necessarily a veteran employee, but someone who is a veteran employee can't be a recent grad (Veteran employee → not Recent grad). That let's us rephrase this conditional as Stress level important → not Recent grad, and the contrapositive gives us: Recent grad → not Stress level important. That makes sense, since the only people who consider stress levels important are veteran employees.

With all these statements now lined up, let's get them collated here:
(1) Recent grads—some—Work environment important
(2) Recent grads—most—not Work environment important
(3) Recent grads → Salary important
(4) Recent grads → not Stress level important
(5) Recent grads → Vacation policy important

With the exception of statements #1 and #2, each combination of statements will yield an inference, and they'll all be a some inference based on our quantifier rules. So let's head to the answers and compare them to these statements to see if we can get an inference instead of anticipating the 9 different inferences we can draw!

Answer Explanation:
Work environment important—some—Vacation policy important. This answer is at the strength level we're looking for ("some"). To infer it, we'd need to be able to combine statements #1 and #5, and we can combine a some statement with a conditional when the sufficient condition of the latter shows up in the former. This answer is therefore correct.

Key Takeaway:
First, "only some" translates to "some do, but most don't"—both are valid expressions. Second, some terms have relationships that allow inferences to be made even if they're not the same term—e.g., a veteran employee isn't a recent grad here. Finally, when you have a ton of potential inferences in a conditional/quantifier question, don't make them all up front. Get your statements in a format that makes them easy to work with, identify how strong a correct answer can be, and then work backwards from the answers.

Incorrect. There's no way to combine a statement about veteran employees with that second statement to get this inference, so despite it being at the right quantifier level, it's incorrect.

Incorrect. This answer is a conditional, and we can't reach any conditional inferences based on the premises—just quantified ones.

Incorrect. This answer is also a conditional, and we can't reach any conditional inferences based on the premises—just quantified ones.