Q6 - University administrator: Any proposal

[smiller]

What does the Question Stem tell us?
This is an Inference question. The correct answer choice must follow logically from the statements in the stimulus. In other words, the correct answer must be a valid conclusion that can be drawn from those statements.

Break down the Stimulus:
The stimulus starts with a conditional statement:
<50 / yr available for hire AND duplicate >25% existing material —> ~new dept. funded

We're given two additional statements:
Area Studies Dept. will duplicate >25% existing material
and
Area Studies Dept. will be funded

Notice that our initial conditional statement is about a new department not being funded, but our last statement is about a department that will be funded. We need to consider the contrapositive of that first statement:
new dept. funded —> ≥50 / yr available for hire OR duplicate ≤25% existing material"

Any prephrase?
Since we know that the new department will be funded, and we know that it will duplicate more than 25% of the existing material, there must be 50 or more people available for hire in that field.

Correct answer:
Choice (A) is correct.

Answer choice analysis:
A) This matches our predicted answer.

B) According to the first statement in the stimulus, duplicating more than 25% of the material covered in one, and only one, of the existing departments could prevent a new department from being funded. Area Studies will duplicate more than 25% of the material covered in Anthropology. None of this tells us whether or not Area Studies will duplicate material in other departments.

C) The first statement in the stimulus describes a condition—duplicating more than 25% of the material covered by an existing department—which would allow us to conclude that a new department will not be funded. This doesn't allow us to draw any conclusions based on a new department that does not duplicate more than 25% of the material covered by an existing department.

D) This might seem appealing at first glance, so be careful. Suppose 25% of the people on my chess team are women. Does that mean 25% of all women are on my chess team?

E) This is the opposite of what we are able to conclude.

Takeaway/Pattern: Inference questions, especially ones of the "must be true" variety, are often driven by conditional logic. Recognizing the conditional statements in the stimulus can help you predict a correct answer and quickly recognize incorrect ones.

#officialexplanation

[sanchez.zoilac]

Are inference questions always a conclusion that can be supported by the passage? Or any informaiton that can be supported by the passage whether that be a premise, background, opinion/view?

Thanks

[HannahS74]

Can you explain why the contrapositive is more than 50 ppl available for hire OR duplicates less than 25% of the existing material? I'm confused why it's an "and" in the original conditional statement and an "or" in the contrapositive.

Thank you!!

[HannahS74]

Can you explain why the contrapositive is more than 50 ppl available for hire OR duplicates less than 25% of the existing material? I'm confused why it's an "and" in the original conditional statement and an "or" in the contrapositive.

Thank you!!

Hi! Just wanted to follow up to see if you had an answer for this question? Thanks so much!