LR Question 18 Explanation, by LSATHacks
QUESTION TEXT: Some planning committee members, those representing the construction…
QUESTION TYPE: Must be True
FACTS:
- Some planning committee members have a significant financial interest in the committee’s decisions. They are those that represent the construction industry.
- No one on the planning committee lives in the suburbs
- Many members work in the suburbs.
ANALYSIS: You can combine “some” statements with conditionals. For instance, if all americans like cheese, and some americans wear orange, then some people who wear orange like cheese. As a diagram, it looks like this: Orange SOME Americans ➞ Cheese
You combine the left part of the some statement with the necessary condition. “Americans” is both part of the some statement, and also the sufficient condition. Here are the two combined statements we can make from the stimulus.
Work Suburbs SOME Members ➞ Live in suburbs
Financial interest SOME members ➞ Live in suburbs
So some people who work in the suburbs don’t live there, and some people with a financial interest in the suburbs don’t live there.
___________
- There could be people with a financial interest in the committee’s decisions who aren’t on the committee and who don’t work in the construction industry.
- This is only true for people who are on the committee. There could be people not on the committee with a financial interest and who live in the suburbs.
- This is possible but doesn’t have to be true.
- Same as C. We only know “many” people work in the suburbs. But they may not be the same people as the people who represent the construction industry.
- CORRECT. The people who represent the construction industry have a significant financial interest and they don’t live in the suburbs.
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For this one I had:
Members SOME –> Financial interest
Members –> NOT Live in suburbs (don’t know how to put a line through it)
Members Many –> Work in suburbs.
So is the above at lease correct, but not combined? I’m not seeing how you got to your diagram.
Your diagrams are correct. You just need to keep in mind that “Some” statements are reversible. So, your first diagram “Members SOME Financial Interest” can be reversed to “Financial Interest SOME Members” (that is, Some people with a significant financial interest in the committee’s decisions are members of the planning committee.) You can now combine that newly reversed diagram with your second diagram to set up the following chain:
Financial interests SOME Members –> NOT live in suburbs
You can follow that “Some to All” chain to get “some people with financial interests in the company do not live in the suburbs.”