Q4

[missbernadette]

Hey Atlas LSAT,
I hope you don't mind me posting and explaining this question and why this certain answer is right. I'm doing this partially as practice for myself and maybe it will help someone else out if they're having problems with this question. Please provide feedback if possible.

Questions 1-6
In the course of one month Garibaldi has exactly seven different meetings. Each of her meetings is with exactly one of five foreign dignitaries: Fuentes, Matsuba, Rhee, Soleimani, or Tbahi. The following constraints govern Garibaldi’s meetings:
She has exactly three meetings with Fuentes, and exactly one with each of the other dignitaries.
She does not have any meetings in a row with Fuentes.
Her meeting with Soleimani is the very next one after her meeting with Tbahi.
Neither the first nor last of her meetings is with Matsuba.

The constraints are as follows:
No FF
TS
M and S cannot be first.
M and T cannot be last.

4. If Garibaldi’s meeting with Rhee is the very next one after Garibaldi’s meeting with Soleimani, then which one of the following must be true?
A. Garibaldi’s third meeting is with Fuentes.
B. Garibaldi’s fourth meeting is with Rhee.
C. Garibaldi’s fifth meeting is with Fuentes.
D. Garibaldi’s sixth meeting is with Rhee.
E. Garibaldi’s seventh meeting is with Fuentes.

This question creates a superblock of TSR because of the original constraint of the game, TS. This superblock leaves only two options for placement on the number line.
_ T S R _ _ _ and _ _ _ T S R _
The superblock cannot be placed anywhere else on the number line because it would violate the No FF constraint (such as _ _ T S R _ _ would result in F F T S R M F or F M T S R F F or something of that nature).
From the two possible number lines, I see that in both cases, F must be both first and seventh in order for M to separate the F meetings AND to satisfy its own constraint (Neither the first nor last of her meetings is with Matsuba). This leaves me with the two following setups.
F T S R F M F and F M F T S R F

I then attacked the answer choices like this:
A) could be true, but in our first number line, S could be third w/out violating the constraints and the superblock
B) could be true, but the second number line shows that it does not have to be true
C) could be but, but S could also be fifth
D) could be true, but M could also be sixth
E) as shown from both number lines, this answer MUST be true in order to accompany the super block and the constraints of the game

[ManhattanPrepLSAT1]

Bernadette!

Great reasoning. Not only is your work accurate, but it's the exact reasoning steps you should take when approaching this question.

The only thing I thought I'd mention so that people who read your post don't get confused, there's a typo in the last of the inferences from the constraints.

You say M and S cannot go first, and then M and T cannot go first.

With regard to M and T, I think you meant to say M and T cannot go last. If you want, you can edit your post so that it's accurate...

Again, great work!

[missbernadette]

Oops, you're right! That was a typo, I will edit that ASAP. Thanks so much for the feedback!