Logical Reasoning

PT146 · S3 · Q22 Riverdale’s Modern Party Chairperson

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Riverdale’s Modern Party Chairperson: Maples, the Modern Party candidate, would be a better mayor than his opponent, Tannett, who is a member of the Traditionalist Party.

Statements

Maples (MP candidate) would be a better mayor than Tannett (TP candidate).

conditional / comparison Every member → Better qualified than any of MP member of TP

Evaluate

There are two big patterns on Must Be False questions: 1. the correct answer contradicts a conditional (meaning it supplies a data point where the trigger is true but the outcome is false)

2. the correct answer contradicts an inference we can make.

Here, there isn't any inference we can make by combining claims, because the 1st sentence is more or less derivable from the conditional rule in the 2nd sentence.

And since the second sentence is a conditional, our premonition would be that the correct answer is going to contradict it.

Goal

Let's look for an answer that makes it seem like some member of the Traditionalist Party could be at least as well qualified as some member of the Modern Party.

22.

If the statements of Riverdale's Modern Party Chairperson are true, each of the following could be true EXCEPT:

  1. Maples has the least seniority

    Out of Scope: seniority / ousted

    We know nothing about seniority, so we can't contradict that Maples is the most recent person to join the MP. And we know nothing about her backstory, so we can't contradict the idea that she was recently in TP but got ousted.

    4% picked this

  2. Tannett would be a better

    Compatible

    This is just saying that Tannett is better than other members of the TP. That's possible. What is impossible is for Tannett to be better qualified than any member of the MP.

    4% picked this

  3. Few residents of Riverdale believe

    Out of Scope: residents' beliefs

    We have no information about what residents believe, so we couldn't contradict a statement about what they believe.

    3% picked this

  4. Of all the members of

    Compatible

    We know that Maples is better than Tannett (who is part of the TP). But she may be worse than all the other members of MP.

    3% picked this

  5. Correct

    Tannett is better qualified to

    Why this is right

    This contradicts our conditional, as we expected. Every MP member (including the chairperson, who clearly is a member) is better qualified than every member of TP. Tannett is a member of TP, so he has to be less qualified than MP's chairperson. He has to be less qualified than all members of MP.

    Skill tested: Must be False · how this choice captures the argument's function is the move to repeat next time.

    87% picked this

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