PrepTest 127, Section 2, Question 19
None of the students taking literature are taking(22 more words not shown)
Which one of the following(7 more words not shown)
- AThere are students(7 more words not shown)
- BNone of the(6 more words not shown)
- CThere are students(7 more words not shown)
- DNone of the(6 more words not shown)
- EThere are students(7 more words not shown)
Reading the argument
Keep physics in the middle of the picture. No literature students take physics, so those two groups do not overlap. Several physics students do take art, so there is a definite overlap between physics and art.
Could art also overlap with literature? Yes, through different students. Art students outside the physics group might take literature. Knowing that some art students take physics doesn't force every art student into that group.
Rhetoric also stays separate from physics. That doesn't tell us whether rhetoric overlaps with literature or art. Two groups can both avoid physics and still share students with each other.
What we’re looking for
The question asks what must follow. Focus on the students whose existence we actually know about: the people taking both physics and art. Since physics students cannot take literature, those particular art students must be outside literature. That is the guaranteed relationship to look for.
Working the answers
- ACorrect
Several physics students take art, and none of them can take literature. Those students establish that there are people taking art but not literature. We don't need to know what every other art student is doing.
- B
Literature and art could overlap among students who aren't taking physics. For example, someone could take literature and art while avoiding physics entirely. Nothing in the premises excludes that combination, so the claim of no overlap doesn't follow.
- C
Every rhetoric student could also take literature, with neither group overlapping physics. That arrangement would satisfy the facts but leave no rhetoric student outside literature. We therefore cannot establish the students C describes.
- D
Rhetoric and literature are both separate from physics, not necessarily from each other. Some students could take both rhetoric and literature without violating any statement. D rules out an overlap the passage leaves possible.
- E
Art and literature might overlap, as we considered while reading, but they also might not. The known overlap is between art and physics. A possible art-literature combination is not a guaranteed one, which is what the stem requires.
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