Bank deposits are credited on the date of the transaction

Bank deposits are credited on the date of the transaction only when they are made before 3 P.M. Alicia knows that the bank deposit was made before 3 P.M. So, Alicia knows that the bank deposit was credited on the date of the transaction.

Which one of the following exhibits both of the logical flaws exhibited by the argument above?

(A) Journalists are the only ones who will be permitted to ask questions at the press conference. Since Marjorie is a journalist, she will be permitted to ask questions.
(B) We know that Patrice works only on Thursday. Today is Thursday, so it follows that Patrice is working today.
(C) It is clear that George knows he will be promoted to shift supervisor, because George will be promoted to shift supervisor only if Helen resigns, and George knows Helen will resign.
(D) John believes that 4 is a prime number and that 4 is divisible by 2. Hence John believes that there is a prime number divisible by 2.
(E) Pat wants to become a social worker. It is well known that social workers are poorly paid. Pat apparently wants to be poorly paid.


Explanation:

First of all, I too agree with nitya34. It looks like a parallel reasoning exercise.

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If we try simplifying the excerpt stated above, then it will look like the following:

A happens ONLY when B happens. Alicia knows that B happened. So, Alicia knows that A also happened.

IMO, only option B & C are contenders.

The problem I find with option B is that it’s only the third person who is concluding everything about the person he/she is talking about (here Patrice). In contrast, if you analyze option C, it looks more similar to the original excerpt (about Bank deposits). Option C is a bit complicated in the sense that it doesn’t look close to the framework presented in the original excerpt but if we rearrange option C, we can see that it’s the closest of all the options.

Original option C:
It is clear that George knows he will be promoted to shift supervisor, because George will be promoted to shift supervisor only if Helen resigns, and George knows Helen will resign.

Rephrased option C:
George will be promoted to shift supervisor only if Helen resigns. George knows Helen will resign. It is clear that George knows he will be promoted to shift supervisor.
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So, option C is my choice.

Hope that helps.


Regards,
Technext

I think we should cross off B not because of its third person side but because it doesn't have a condition. The initial passage has a conditional reasoning.

Initially I chose B. after reading texnext's version I re-read the stimulus again.

B should be written off because the conclusion is is not structurally parallel. The correct conclusion should have been " We know that Patrice is working today."

C should be correct.

Thanks Textnext. You really made me think on this one and I really appreciate the contributions you are making to this forum.

C

I choose B. What is the OA!?

This is one of the insane problems of LSAT. Could you please post the OE?

From one forum, I have got that here is one hiddent assumption: "Alicia knows that the bank deposit was made before 3 P.M." - it does not mean that "Alicia knows that the bank deposit was credited on the date of the transaction" - why?
because, say, Alicia knows that money credited at 10:00AM (before 3PM), but she might not be aware of the fact that "money will be credited on the same day". So that's another flaw here.

I can't imagine the GMAT would ever contain a similar question, but it's an interesting problem all the same. First, it seems important to identify the two logical flaws in the stem:

1) "deposits are credited on the date of the transaction only when they are made before 3 P.M." This does not mean "deposits are always credited if they are made before 3 PM", just as "I only go out on Fridays" doesn't mean "I always go out on Fridays".

2) "Alicia knows that the bank deposit was made before 3 P.M. So, Alicia knows that the bank deposit was credited on the date of the transaction." Alicia may know when she made the deposit, but that doesn't mean she knows anything about the bank's policy about when the bank credits deposits.

Only C contains both flaws.

Nice explanation Ian. I just overlooked the flaw.

+1


Thanks,
Technext

Clear C. This question is an excellent illustration of why (assuming you are not running out of time) one should always read every answer choice. The key to solving this problem is noticing that it contains 2 flaws. Answer choices A & B contain one of the flaws and since only one answer choice is correct we must reanalyze the question and discover that we are asked for BOTH FLAWS. Most people who answer this incorrectly select A and move on to the next question.