In a political system with only two major parties, the entrance of a

A. If the political platform of the third party is a compromise position between that of the two major parties, the third party will draw its voters equally from the two major parties. [ Not true – as per argument, the third party draws unequally – eliminate it]

B. If, before the emergence of a third party, voters were divided equally between the two major parties, neither of the major parties is likely to capture much more than one-half of the vote. [true – Hold it]

C. A third-party candidate will not capture the votes of new voters who have never voted for candidates of either of the two major parties. [this may be true – but since argument never discusses about new voters - eliminate it]

D. The political stance of a third party will be more radical than that of either of the two major parties. [too extreme – eliminate it]

E. The founders of a third party are likely to be a coalition consisting of former leaders of the two major parties. [Not per argument – eliminate it]

Answer: B

A. Whether there is a compromise or not, part C (3rd party) will ALWAYS draw membership from only one of the other party (A or B). WRONG
B. Before formation of party, if A and B had equal voters, then of the parties less one candidate will be fewer than 50; at best 51: 49 CORRECT
C. We are not told what effect, if any, the number of those who refuse to vote for either A or B will have on party C... Out of scope and it is WRONG

Using the info here :
"In this important election the third-party extremist candidate attracted some of the voters who otherwise would have voted for one of the two major candidates, but not voters who supported the other candidate."

Choice A - If, before the emergence of a third party, voters were divided equally between the two major parties, neither of the major parties is likely to capture much more than one-half of the vote. - CORRECT

This is a fun math-based problem.

Correct answer is option B.

Let's assume the two major parties each have 50 votes out of a total 100 votes. And we know that a third party will take some of the 50 votes of ONLY ONE of the parties leaving the votes of the other party intact. Thus, no party would (still) have more than 50% of the votes or more than 50 votes.

Cheers,
Der alte Fritz.

In a political system with only two major parties, the entrance of a third-party candidate into an election race damages the chances of only one of the two major candidates. The third-party candidate always attracts some of the voters who might otherwise have voted for one of the two major candidates, but not voters who support the other candidate. Since a third-party candidacy affects the two major candidates unequally, for reasons neither of them has any control over, the practice is unfair and should not be allowed.

If the factual information in the passage above is true, which of the following can be most reliably inferred from it?

(A) If the political platform of the third party is a compromise position between that of the two major parties, the third party will draw its voters equally from the two major parties.

- Wrong because the author states that the third party affects the other two candidates unequally

(B) If, before the emergence of a third party, voters were divided equally between the two major parties, neither of the major parties is likely to capture much more than one-half of the vote.

- Not sure at first... 'The third-party candidate always attracts some of the voters who might otherwise have voted for one of the two major candidates'

Then, some usually means about 30% or less than a half. Therefore, this fits into the premise.

(C) A third-party candidate will not capture the votes of new voters who have never voted for candidates of either of the two major parties.

Out of scope

(D) The political stance of a third party will be more radical than that of either of the two major parties.

Out of scope

(E) The founders of a third party are likely to be a coalition consisting of former leaders of the two major parties.

Out of scope

Answer: B

The conclusion that can be inferred here is that the entrance of a third party will affect both voters unequally.


If the factual information in the passage above is true, which of the following can be most reliably inferred from it?

(A) If the political platform of the third party is a compromise position between that of the two major parties, the third party will draw its voters equally from the two major parties.
There is no reference in the passage regarding the position a party takes and how it affects other parties' voters. -- incorrect
(B) If, before the emergence of a third party, voters were divided equally between the two major parties, neither of the major parties is likely to capture much more than one-half of the vote.
Correct - According to the passage, the new third party would take some votes at least, and will also bring in its own voters, hence the new tally won't allow any one party to have more the 1/2 of the votes.
(C) A third-party candidate will not capture the votes of new voters who have never voted for candidates of either of the two major parties.
This is ambiguous - as we know the new party will bring its own voters - those could be voters who have not voted for anyone else before. -- incorrect
(D) The political stance of a third party will be more radical than that of either of the two major parties.
Similar to A, no opinions or stance of a party is known -- incorrect
(E) The founders of a third party are likely to be a coalition consisting of former leaders of the two major parties.
No information in the passage suggests a coalition of other party leaders -- incorrect.

In an inference question you are looking for the thing you know to be true from the paragraph ALONE. You are not looking to add extra information or change the author's opinion in any way. a good start to these question types is to elminate answer choices that bring in new information that is not contained in the passage. In this question:

A is out becuase it directly contradicts the passage - saying the third party will pull voters equally while the passage says a third party will only pull voters from one side.
C is out becuase the passage does not discuss new voters so we can't know that for sure.
D is out becuase we don't know the nature of the political stance of a new party
E is out becuase we don't know how a third party would be founded.

This leaves B which must be true because the passage says a third party would only pull voters from one party - thus if each party started with 50% then a third party would pull some votes from one side, leaving the other side untouched. Therefore, it is unlikely one party will get more than 50%. Also notice the "mushy" wording in the word "likely" this makes it easier to prove true over an answer that says something will happen.

kindly tell me in this passage where the author has referred that the votes will be divided in 50-50% before the arrival of the third party .

Hi Kanika

Nowhere in the passage does it mention that the votes are divided equally between the two existing parties.

However, answer option (B) does state this as a conditional ie; IF the vote was divided equally, then something happens. Our job here is not to assess whether the condition is true or not - we need to merely assess whether the outcome stated in option (B) will occur IF the condition stated is satisfied. This is clearly true, since the third party will capture votes from one of the parties and there is nothing to suggest a transfer of votes from the existing party losing votes to the one that does not lose votes. Therefore, it can be expected that the party that does not lose votes will merely retain its earlier vote share, which is given as ~50%.

Hope this clarifies.

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