No mathematician today would flatly refuse to accept the results of an enormous computation as an adequate demonstration of the truth of a theorem. In 1976, however, this was not the case. Some mathematicians at that time refused to accept the results of a complex computer demonstration of a very simple mapping theorem. Although some mathematicians still hold a strong belief that a simple theorem ought to have a short, simple proof, in fact, some simple theorems have required enormous proofs.

If all of the statements in the passage are true, which one of the following must also be true?

(A) Today, some mathematicians who believe that a simple theorem ought to have a simple proof would consider accepting the results of an enormous computation as a demonstration of the truth of a theorem.

(B) Some individuals who believe that a simple theorem ought to have a simple proof are not mathematicians.

(C) Today, some individuals who refuse to accept the results of an enormous computation as a demonstration of the truth of a theorem believe that a simple theorem ought to have a simple proof.

(D) Some individuals who do not believe that a simple theorem ought to have a simple proof would not be willing to accept the results of an enormous computation as proof of a complex theorem.

(E) Some nonmathematicians do not believe that a simple theorem ought to have a simple proof.


I picked A as it was the closest to the argument.
I want to confirm another thing. The reason why I negated other answers was that in B,C and D individuals in mentioned though we are talking of "mathematicians" here. Is my reasoning correct?

ans is A...
b,c,d are out as it used "individual"..bt in argument talks abt mathematician..

a mathematician can also be labeled as an individual so I don't think we can eliminate b, c and d simply because they use the term individuals. The more imp point is that they can be eliminated because B and C for instance may or may not be true. D is completely false because those who DONT believe that simple theorems SHOULD NOT HAVE SIMPLE PROOFS have not been talked about at all in the passage

Good Question..

I narrowed it to A and C.
C can be eliminated as it may or may not be true..but A will be always true..

I go with A,
so this is a "Must be True" questions and only A qualifies that

a

AAAAAA

Can someone clearly explain why E is incorrect?
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The answer is A.
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Sure, the passage never gives any information about what non-mathematicians believe. Therefore E may be true, or it may not, but we have no information either way.

Also, I wanted to clarify something.
A good number of posters above eliminated answer choices because they used the term 'individual' instead of mathematicians.

This alone isn't a legitimate reason to eliminate an answer choice.

The passage actually gives us a great deal of information that MUST be true regarding individuals.
1) In present day, some individuals would not refuse to accept the results of a computer process.
2) In 1976, some individuals would.
3) Some individuals believe a simple theorem should have a simple proof.
4) Some individuals do not believe a simple theorem should have a simple proof.
These 4 statements (and possibly others) all MUST be true based on the statements of the passage.

The thing that disqualifies the other answer choices, is that they're using the term "individuals" but the answer choice actually limits it further to "non-mathematicians".

For example, the answer choice:
"(C) Today, some individuals who refuse to accept the results of an enormous computation as a demonstration of the truth of a theorem believe that a simple theorem ought to have a simple proof."
Is wrong not because it uses the term "individuals" but because it's making a claim about "non-mathematicians", which we know nothing about.