Logical reasoning PrepTest 126 · Section 4 · Question 22

Incorrect. This answer has a Many" thrown in one of the premises that isn't matched in the stimulus, so we can eliminate this answer.

Correct. Argument or Facts:
Argument

Valid or Flawed:
Valid

Question Type:
Parallel Reasoning

Stimulus Summary:
(1) Radio airplay restrictions — Nationally imposed regulations
(2) Nationally imposed regulations AND (not Labor law AND not Taxation) → In City Club guide
(3) Radio airplay restrictions — not Labor law AND not Taxation
Therefore — Radio airplay restrictions are in the City Club guide

Answer Anticipation:
This Parallel Reasoning question has conditional logic, so we should diagram it out and find the answer that has the same diagram. That said, this is a difficult diagram to get right, so let's make sure we understand it.

The first line here simply gives us a fact about radio airplay restrictions—they are nationally imposed regulations.

The second line is where it gets difficult—it's conditional (all", "except"), but it's very complicated. It has a sufficient indicator ("all"), that "except" (which is equivalent to "unless"), and an "or" in the "except." That's a lot to handle! So let's unpack it, starting with the simplest piece. And that simple piece is the "all"—that's a straightforward conditional, so let's forget about the "except" for a second. If we do that, the diagram is:
Nationally imposed regulations → In City Club guide

Now, we need to figure out how to add in the exception. When we work with "unless, one means of doing so is to treat it as if not." The reason for that boils down to the definition of an exception—if the exception doesn't happen, then the normal outcome happens, hence the "if not." So the exception here applies to regulations that deal with taxation or labor law. Here's where the next trick comes in—since we're treating "except" as "if not", we need to negate all terms it applies to—including the or. And or, negated, becomes and. So the exception is when a regulation doesn't deal with labor law and it doesn't deal with taxation. So if we have a regulation that deals with neither of those, then it's in the City Club guide:
Nationally imposed regulations AND (not Labor law AND not Taxation) → In City Club guide

Now with the complicated part out of the way, we can see that the following line establishes something else about radio airplay restrictions. Added to the first line, it tells us that radio airplay restrictions meet all the sufficient conditions of the conditionals, thus guaranteeing that they're in the City Club guide, as the conclusion states. So this is valid.

The overall format, therefore, is:
A is B
B AND (not C AND not D) → E
A is not C and not D
Therefore, A is E

We strongly recommend you don't diagram out each answer choice, instead focusing on the conditional and seeing if there's a way to easily eliminate it because it doesn't match up with that. After all, there are multiple terms and ANDs in there, so there should be a good number of answers that see a mismatch there.

Answer Explanation:
A quick reading shows that this answer has all the relevant parts and nothing that wasn't present in the stimulus. If you skipped diagramming it and eliminated the other answers, that wouldn't be the worst strategy. However, if you diagrammed this out, you'd see it matches the stimulus:
Coreopsis — Perennial
Perennial AND (not Shrub AND Native to North America) → Annual Garden Club award
Coreopsis — not Shrub AND Native to North America
Therefore — Coreopsis — Annual Garden Club award
Note that the negations don't have to line up, as long as a non—negated term that matches to a negated one (like Native to North America does here) stays non—negated when it shows up in the otherwise correct places.

Key Takeaway:
This is a complicated question if you try to diagram it out, and a time—consuming one. If, instead, you had just identified the relevant logical pieces, it would have actually been much easier—looking for an "all . . . except A or B" would have narrowed it down quickly to (A) and (B), and then you could have eliminated (A) based on the "Many." Relying on that, however, is a bit of a gamble—more answers easily could have included that language. At the end of the day, you'll need to make a call on how strong you are at conditional logic, how much time you have left, and what you think is going to result in you getting to the most questions in the section.

Incorrect. The exception here only has one exception listed (poses a threat to regional economic growth"), not two as in the stimulus, so we can eliminate it.

Incorrect. There's no conditional with an exception here, or an AND/OR statement, so we can eliminate this answer.

Incorrect. Even if" is in many ways the opposite of an exception—it brings up a potential exception where the normal outcome still happens. Since this answer doesn't have a conditional with an exception, we can eliminate it.