Q2 - Ann: All the campers

[greatwhiteshark100]

I don't get why E is the answer. "only campers..." sounds pretty much the same as Ann's argument in the stimulus

[noah]

(BTW, notice how I edited your thread's title - please try to use that so that future users can find this explanation easily).

Let's bust out some formal logic here.

Ann says: Winnehatchee camper --> Tri-City

Bill responds: No, it's not true, because there are SOME Tri-City --> NOT Winnehatchee

(I'm sick of spelling that word, so we're changing the camp name to "Winn")

Let's think about what Bill's response would be a good reply to (because the question indicates his answer is not a good argument against Ann's statement). If he's pointing out that there are some Tri-City kids who don't go to Winn (by pointing out some exceptions), he's proving that it's not true that All Tri-City kids go to Winn. That means he's disproving this statement: Tri-City student --> Winn camper, which is the reverse of what Ann actually said.

So, Bill is assuming that Ann said something like "If you are a student from Tri-City, you must be going to Camp Winn." Or, as (E) puts it, "Only the campers at Camp Winn are students at Tri-City."

If you're having trouble seeing how the two statements in the previous paragraph are the same, look at these:

If you are a frog, you are also a prince.

Only princes are frogs.

Both of those statements translate to this: frog --> prince

"Only" introduces the necessary side of the conditional statement.

All the other answers are easily eliminated: For (A) - (C), they use "most" or "some", terms that are irrelevant to the argument which deals only with conditional relationships. (D) is wrong because Bill's statements don't dispute that claim.

Does that clear it up?

[greatwhiteshark100]

I get that Bill interprets Ann to have meant, All Tri-city students go to Camp Winn.

But E states "only campers at Camp Winn are Tri-cities Students"

I have a hard time trying to understand that bit, because I interpret it as "Tri-cities students are the only campers at Camp Winn" that doesn't sounds like "All Tri-city students go to camp winn"

Thanks man, you're a great help

[noah]

Yeah, it's tricky. I just went back and edited my response a bit to clean it up.

I think the tricky part is to read it like this:

"Only campers at this camp (Winn) are from Tri-City."

Or, to go deeper into the logic

"Only people with X are from category Y"

"Only X is Y"

But again, this doesn't mean every STUDENT from Tri-City is a camper, just every student that is a camper. Tricky....

[hdw217]

Hi there, I get everything the question and why the answer is E. I think I'm just confused as to how to diagram answer E.

E: only campers at Camp Winnehatchee are students at Tri-Cities High School

I know only modifies necessary condition but the "only" here is modifying "campers" which really refers to the TCHS people. wouldn't that be TCHS -> CW?

I was just thinking about it, if the only campers at CW are people from TCHS, does that mean that every/all campers at CW are from TCHS? doesn't that mean if you are a camper at CW, you are from TCHS?

Was also wondering could anyone shed light on diagramming this:

1. I only do minor work when there are no emergencies.

2. The only times when I do minor work are when there are no emergencies.
(I'm assuming this is Minor work -> No Emergencies, since the only is modifying times which is No Emergencies?)

Thanks for the help guys! you are amazing.

[timmydoeslsat]

Hi there, I get everything the question and why the answer is E. I think I'm just confused as to how to diagram answer E.

E: only campers at Camp Winnehatchee are students at Tri-Cities High School

I know only modifies necessary condition but the "only" here is modifying "campers" which really refers to the TCHS people. wouldn't that be TCHS -> CW?

I was just thinking about it, if the only campers at CW are people from TCHS, does that mean that every/all campers at CW are from TCHS? doesn't that mean if you are a camper at CW, you are from TCHS?

This is the part where there is an issue. We do not know that the only campers at CW are people from TCHS. We know that if you are from TCHS, you are a camper at CW. We do not know what happens if you are not from TCHS. There could be tons of different high schools represented at this camp.

Was also wondering could anyone shed light on diagramming this:

1. I only do minor work when there are no emergencies.

This is an only when statement (necessary condition indicator). You are telling me, minor work ---> ~emergencies

2. The only times when I do minor work are when there are no emergencies.
(I'm assuming this is Minor work -> No Emergencies, since the only is modifying times which is No Emergencies?)

This is telling me the same information as the first statement, but in different logical terms. You are using "the only" which is a sufficient indicator rather than a necessary one.
Thanks for the help guys! you are amazing.

My comments are above in the quote with the red color.

[ManhattanPrepLSAT1]

Thanks Timmy! Great explanation! The issue Timmy pointed out is that different language cues give us different organizations of conditional statements. Here's a list of some more language cues and how they organize conditionals...