Question #1566

Answer choice B

Started by mprezzy · started 2020-03-25 19:37 · last activity 2020-04-07 16:16 · 4 replies

Hello. I understand how the instructors arrived at answer A, however I got this one wrong because I 1. Did not add -> WGG to the SDC - some - not SS, (that is less concerning because I feel o can correct it easily) but I am more concerned with why I choose to pick B. I picked it because I took the all statement and reversed it into a some: SDC -some- not SS. Please help with why I should not have arrived there. Thank you.

Replies

  1. shunhe · 2020-03-26 12:22

    Hi @mprezzy, Thanks for the question! So it’s true that if one of the answer choices had been, “some flowers that provide a stunning display of color have no scent,” that answer choice would have been correct. You can take the “All” condition and use it to conclude that “some” condition. However, you cannot take the “some” condition and use it to conclude the “all” condition. This is essentially what you are doing—the passage gives you the “some” condition, and you reverse it to conclude (B). Unlike contrapositives, you can’t go both ways between “all” and “some.” That’s a one-way train. For example, let’s say we know that some CEOs are women. We can’t conclude from that that all women are CEOs, even though if we knew that all women are CEOs, we could conclude that some CEOs are women. We have to work from the information in the passage to the answer choices, not the information in the answer choices to the passage. Hope this helps! Feel free to ask any further questions that you might have.

  2. mprezzy · 2020-03-29 03:46

    Sorry but you forgot to post a response. Any help is appreciated. Thank you.

  3. mprezzy · 2020-04-02 17:19

    @shunhe I cannot see your response.

  4. shunhe · 2020-04-07 16:16

    Hi @mprezzy, let's see if it works this time, sorry about that: Thanks for the question! So it’s true that if one of the answer choices had been, “some flowers that provide a stunning display of color have no scent,” that answer choice would have been correct. You can take the “All” condition and use it to conclude that “some” condition. However, you cannot take the “some” condition and use it to conclude the “all” condition. This is essentially what you are doing—the passage gives you the “some” condition, and you reverse it to conclude (B). Unlike contrapositives, you can’t go both ways between “all” and “some.” That’s a one-way train. For example, let’s say we know that some CEOs are women. We can’t conclude from that that all women are CEOs, even though if we knew that all women are CEOs, we could conclude that some CEOs are women. We have to work from the information in the passage to the answer choices, not the information in the answer choices to the passage. Hope this helps! Feel free to ask any further questions that you might have.

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