LG 4th Edition p.34 #5

[nasir.aneela]

Hey LSAT Geeks,

Question #5 on page 34 of the LG book is confusing me. First of all, I feel that the answer for this question (given on p. 35) may be incorrect.

The question states, "O finishes at least two spots ahead of or behind M. Exactly one runner finishes between L and O."

The answer does not contain any arrows signifying the "ahead of or behind" as stated in the question.

I also do not understand how the "L" part of the answer is shown as either "_L or L_". What about "O"?

So, what is the correct way to notate this? I would highly appreciate any explanation to answer my concern.

Thank you,
Aneela

[nasir.aneela]

Btw, this is what I came up with for my answer. Is it correct? Thanks!

Image attached below:

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P.S. The image might look huge on your screen when you click on it. Just hit 'ctrl -' until you can see it.

[ohthatpatrick]

Hey ... unfortunately I couldn't view your image link. It said the image was no longer available.

The intended visual effect of those smushed-together rules was that O goes right where the word "or" is.

They're smushing together the two options,
L _ O or O _ L
by making the word "or" the O.

You would normally just do L _ O, with the reverse arrows, as you said.

But here, we're doing it THIS random way to try to visually anchor the rule to the O in each version of
M _+ O

Let me just say, though, that this pair of rules is incredibly rare, if it's even ever occurred. So don't sweat a right way of symbolizing this.

This is just a "Make it work!" example. We're not necessarily in love with it or saying it's the "right" way. We're just saying, someone COULD try to put the L _ O or O _ L thing near the O in the M_+O rule so that they can kinda visually interact the way they would on a number line.