Q25 - Keeler wanted the institute

[smiller]

Question Type:
Match the Reasoning

Stimulus Breakdown:
Premises:
1. Keeler and Greene were the only people in a position to notify the press.
2. Greene had no reason to notify the press.
3. Keeler had a reason to notify the press (he wanted the institute to receive bad publicity).

Conclusion:
Keeler must have notified the press.

Answer Anticipation:
Since this is a Match the Reasoning question, we're mainly interested in the overall structure of the argument. You might notice a flaw in the argument: having a reason to do something doesn't guarantee that someone will actually do it. Likewise, sometimes people do things for no reason. Noticing this flaw might help us evaluate the answers, but hopefully we can make some eliminations just based on structural mismatches.

Correct answer:
C

Answer choice analysis:
(A) This answer gives us a reason to doubt that either person wrote the letter: they both deny doing so. In the original argument, we're only given evidence to suggest that one of the people (Greene) did not notify the press.

(B) This is close, but it doesn't tell us that Carter had a reason to bribe the official. The original tells us that Keeler had a motive for notifying the press.

(C) The structure of this argument matches the original. Only two people had the opportunity to tamper with the equipment. One had a reason to do so. The other did not. From these premises, we conclude that the person who had a reason must have done it.

(D) This argument relies on the same underlying assumption as the original: if someone has a reason to take an action, they will take that action. However, the evidence in this answer choice is reversed. The evidence is based on an action that did not happen (taking credit for the design) rather than an action that did happen (someone notifying the press). Also, we don't know if Solano did or did not have a reason to take credit, so this answer choice is missing a significant piece of evidence that we see in the original.

(E) Like choice (D), this is missing a significant piece of evidence. We know that there is a reason for Rengo to be selected, but unlike the original, there is no evidence to suggest that Cutter will not be selected.

Takeaway/Pattern:
Answer choices for some Match the Reasoning questions can look very similar at first glance. It's important to have a clear understanding of the argument in the stimulus in order to notice mismatches in the answer choices.

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