I'm very confused about the LR problem from test 49 (June 2006) question 7 in second LR - I'm totally confused on this one. The one about fruits and inspection and infection. Should I diagram this one? It seems like it but when I tried to do it I got confused about what my diagrams meant cuz my diagrams made inspected and infected both look the same and I kept mixing them up.
Any help would be appreciated!
Some of these questions make me
does it get better after more practice or am I
With conditional reasoning ("if...then" type logic) problems, diagramming can be worthwhile, as is the case with this one. In that question they start with two conditional premises, and then jump to a conclusion. The question asks which choice allows the conclusion to follow logically. Only one answer choice will logically lead to that conclusion.
The premises are 1) if a fruit is infected, then it is also rotten: infected
rotten
and 2) if a fruit was inspected, then it is not infected: inspected
not infected
They then arrive at this conclusion: if a fruit was inspected, then it must be safe: inspected
safe
Before we read this conclusion, though, all that we know is that inspected fruits were not infected (inspected
not infected). If this conclusion is to be logically drawn, the speaker must think that if a fruit is not infected, it is definitely safe. This is what answer choice (E) provides: not infected
safe.
When we add answer choice (E) to the information from the paragraph, we can logically create the following conditional chain: inspected
not infected
safe
That is how answer choice (E) allows the argument to follow logically: inspected
safe!
Keep practicing and try not to get frustrated. Conditional logic can be tough at first, but you will find that these types of questions do get easier with practice.
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