To solve this question, you have to note not only that conditional reasoning is involved, but there are two sets of conditions. It can help to diagram it.
QUESTION:Quote:
A gift is not generous unless it is intended to benefit the recipient and is worth more than what is expected or customary in the situation...
a) GENEROUS ---> INTENDED BENEFIT REC. + WORTH MORE
Quote:
... a gift is selfish if it is given to benefit the giver or is less valuable than is customary.
b) BENEFIT GIVER
OR LESS VAL ---> SELFISH
ANSWERS: (Underlined = conclusion)
(A) Charles, who hates opera, was given two expensive tickets to the opera. He in turn gave them to his cousin, who loves opera, as a birthday gift.
Charles’s gift was selfish because he paid nothing for the tickets.
Since our conclusion is "selfish", let's check our b) condition. Did Charles benefit giver? Yes. Is it less valuable than is customary? Not sure. Let's move on.
(B) Emily gives her brother a year’s membership in a health club. She thinks that this will allow her brother to get the exercise he needs. However,
the gift is selfish because Emily’s brother is hurt and offended by it.
Condition b). Did Emily intend to benefit the giver? Probably. Is it less valuable than customary? Unknown. Let's move on. Note: don't get caught up by the fact that this answer says Emily's brother is hurt, and thus did not benefit; the condition states that a gift is not generous unless it is INTENDED to benefit, not if it actually benefitted or not.
(C) Amanda gives each of her clients an expensive bottle of wine every year.
Amanda’s gifts are generous, since they cause the clients to continue giving Amanda business.
We can automatically scratch this one out because the conclusion is generous -- none of our conditionals result in generosity.
(D) Olga gives her daughter a computer as a graduation gift. Since this is the gift that all children in Olga’s family receive for graduation, it is not generous.
Correct.
This is the contrapositive for conditional a), which = NOT BENEFIT REC. + NOT WORTH MORE ---> NOT GENEROUS.
Does this gift intend to benefit the recipient? Probably. Is it worth more than custom? No. Since Olga gave the gift to all children, and thus are all worth the same, then it isn't worth more than customary. Therefore, since one of the conditions is not met, we can conclude that Olga was indeed not generous. (E) Michael gave his nephew $50 as a birthday gift, more than he had ever given before. Michael’s nephew, however, lost the money. Therefore, Michael’s gift was
not generous because it did not benefit the recipient.
This is the contrapositive for conditional a), which = NOT BENEFIT REC. + NOT WORTH MORE ---> NOT GENEROUS.
Does this gift intend to benefit the recipient? Probably yes. Is it worth more? Yes. This does not meet the conditions.