Logical reasoning PrepTest 120 · Section 4 · Question 15

Incorrect. What would be true doesn't speak to what is true, so this answer falls short of justifying the conclusion.

Incorrect. An answer about "[s]ome" people is too weak to justify a conclusion about what "rarely" happens.

Incorrect. not Concerned with making money → Interested in improving intellect. So close! This answer, however, is the negation/reversal of the conditional we need. The stimulus doesn't establish any group that definitely isn't concerned with making money—we don't learn that about people with doctorates in the liberal arts.

Incorrect. The relevant factor in the argument is whether they're concerned with making money in the business world, not whether they're interested in employment. They could want employment to improve their intellect and not care about making money in that job!

Correct. Argument or Facts:
Argument

Valid or Flawed:
Flawed

Question Type:
Strengthen with Sufficient Premise

Stimulus Summary:
Doctorate in liberal arts → Interested in improving intellects
Companies rarely hire people who aren't concerned with making money
Therefore - Companies rarely hire people with doctorates in the liberal arts

Answer Anticipation:
Strengthen with Sufficient Premise questions frequently introduce new concepts in the conclusion, and the correct answer connects a term from the premises to that new concept. When that's not the case, the gap is usually between premises.

Here, the conclusion talks about who companies rarely hire, and people with doctorates in the liberal arts. Both of those concepts show up in the premises, so the gap must be between those premises.

What do we learn about who companies rarely hire? Those who aren't concerned with making money. What do we learn about people with doctorates in the liberal arts? That they're interested in improving their intellects.

So the correct answer needs to connect those concepts from the premises (or the contrapositive):
Interested in improving intellect → not Concerned with making money
Concerned with making money → not Interested in improving intellect

Answer Explanation:
Interested in improving intellect → not Concerned with making money. This answer matches our anticipation. If this is true, then people with doctorates in liberal arts, who are all interested in improving their intellects, aren't concerned with making money. That guarantees that they'll rarely be hired by companies, as the conclusion states.

Key Takeaway:
Always consider the "direction" of the connection you're looking for in Strengthen with Sufficient Premise questions. As we saw here, they usually provide the reverse/negated version of the correct answer as a trap.