PrepTest 144, Section 4, Question 22
On Wednesdays, Kate usually buys some guava juice.(30 more words not shown)
The argument above is most(13 more words not shown)
- AOnly teachers at(36 more words not shown)
- BAll dinners at(37 more words not shown)
- CMost dinners at(39 more words not shown)
- DMost teachers at(34 more words not shown)
- EOnly teachers at(41 more words not shown)
Reading the argument
This reasoning works. If Kate buys guava juice on a Wednesday, she has to shop at the only place where she can buy it.
She usually buys the juice on Wednesdays, so she must at least sometimes visit that store on Wednesdays. The conclusion is modest: it doesn't say every Wednesday, and it doesn't claim that every store visit is for guava juice.
What we’re looking for
For a parallel argument, preserve those connections. Something usually happens, doing it requires another thing, and therefore that required thing must sometimes happen. The answers can put the statements in a different order. What matters is which fact leads to which requirement.
Working the answers
- ACorrect
Most dinners are prepared in the institute's kitchen, matching Kate usually buying guava juice on Wednesdays. Only institute teachers can use that kitchen, matching the restriction that the juice can be bought only at the health food store. So at least some dinners must be prepared by those teachers, just as Kate must sometimes shop at that store on Wednesdays. The teachers fill the store's role, and using the kitchen fills buying the juice's role. The order of the premises changes, but the connections and the modest conclusion match.
- B
This uses all dinners and reaches a conclusion about the dinners as a whole. Our argument starts with what usually happens and concludes that something sometimes happens. B has a similar connection through the kitchen, but the strength of its premise and conclusion differs. The problem isn't the word “must”; our original also uses that word.
- C
All teachers being allowed to use the kitchen doesn't mean only teachers may use it. Other people could prepare every dinner there. This loses the restriction that makes the original work: Kate has no other place to buy the juice, while C doesn't rule out other people using the kitchen.
- D
Most teachers may use the kitchen, but that doesn't establish that they prepare the cafe's dinners. Perhaps other cooks prepare every dinner, while the teachers use the kitchen for something else. D begins with permission for a group, rather than an activity that actually occurs and requires a particular group or place.
- E
This is closer, so check what the teachers are required to do. Only teachers may use the main kitchen, but teachers don't have to use it every time they cook. They could prepare the cafe's dinners somewhere else. E establishes the teachers and tries to infer the kitchen; A establishes the kitchen and infers the required teachers. To make the same mistake with Kate, we'd say she usually visits the health food store, so she must sometimes buy guava juice. She might always buy something else.
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