Logical reasoning PrepTest 117 · Section 4 · Question 18

Question prompt

Philosopher: The rational pursuit Remaining source text redacted.
Why the credited answer is right

Credited answer: B

The notes below walk through why it fits the stem and how to eliminate the rest.

Argument or Facts

Argument

Valid or Flawed

Valid

Question Type

Cannot Be True Questions

Stimulus Summary

Rational pursuit of happiness → Consider long-term consequences Desires usually focus on short term Desires --some-- Compulsions Desires --most--> At least some happiness when attained Compulsions → No happiness even when attained Therefore - Rational pursuit of happiness =/= Always giving in to desire

Answer Anticipation

This question is rough. There’s a lot going on. There are statements that are conditional (or at least can be viewed that way). Quantified statements. Comparisons. Linked concepts.
A few notes on our Summary. First, this is an argument, but remember that in Must be True and Cannot be True questions, we treat all statements as true, even if they’re conclusions.
Second, we were a little fast and loose with quantifiers here. Mainly, that second statement could be a most statement (“usually”), but this doesn’t seem to be a question about chaining statements together or making inferences. Instead, it’s likely that the correct answer will violate one of the stronger statements - the conditionals - by establishing the sufficient condition without the necessary condition.
Third, we diagrammed out the statement about ordinary desires leading to at least some happiness as a most statement in order to keep that statement talking about the same concept as the previous one (“desires”), but if you diagrammed that as Ordinary desire → At least some…, then that’s 100% correct as well.
This isn’t looking like a question where we’re going to have a spot-on anticipation, so let’s head to the answers with these statements in mind and work to see which answer violates what we know.

Answer choices

  1. A
    The majority of people Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice A is not credited
    The stimulus notes that desires are “sometimes” compulsions. That leaves open the possibility that most people don’t have compulsions, while a minority of people do, thus accounting for that “sometimes.”
  2. B
    Attaining the goal of Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice B matches the stem
    This answer violates the inference from statements #3 and #5. If compulsions are a subset of desires, and they lead to no happiness when achieved, then for some desires (compulsions), there’s no happiness. That contradicts this answer choice, stating that any desire - which would include compulsions - leads to happiness. This is therefore the correct answer.
  3. C
    Most people do not Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice C is not credited
    There’s no indication of what percentage of people do and do not pursue happiness rationally, think about the long-term, or give in to desire/compulsion, so this answer is out of scope and thus could be true.
  4. D
    Most people want more Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice D is not credited
    There’s no discussion of what the compulsions/desires are for people here, or what is motivating their actions, so this answer about what they “want” is out of scope. We can’t infer motive without a premise talking about it, so the motive for most people here could be anything!
  5. E
    All actions have long–term Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice E is not credited
    The rational pursuit of happiness requires a look at the long-term consequences of actions. While that doesn’t prove all actions have long-term consequences, it certainly leaves open the possibility that they do.

What this tests

Question analytics

Based on historical answer selection rates for this question.

Answer choice distribution

  1. A 16%
  2. B Credited 60%
  3. C 3%
  4. D 7%
  5. E 14%

Deeper help

Ask follow-ups on any step

Optional AI tutor mode will let you interrogate assumptions, compare answers, and drill weak patterns without leaving the page.

Human-written explanations stay primary; AI is an add-on when you want it.

Discussion

View all discussions Start a discussion