For a business to survive a major downturn, it must be well managed.

For a business to survive a major downturn, it must be well managed. At the same time, for a business to be well managed, it must have a leader with clear vision, and clear vision is possible only for those willing to perceive reality accurately.

The passage presents a series of requirements:

- A business's surviving a major downturn requires that it be well managed.

- A business's being well managed requires a leader with clear vision.

- Clear vision require willingness to perceive reality accurately.

If the above statements on true, which of the following can be properly concluded on the basis of them?

This is an Inference question, and the correct answer will be something that must be true if the statements in the passage are true.

(A) All businesses that are highly profitable have leaders who are willing to perceive reality accurately.

The passage does not indicate that anything is required for a business to be "highly profitable."

So, this choice is not supported by the passage.

Eliminate.

(B) Times of major downturns are the times when it is most important for business leaders to have clear vision.

The passage indicates that clear vision is necessary for a business to survive a major downturn.

Notice, however, that it does not indicate how important it is for business leaders to have clear vision at other times.

So, the passage does not provide information that supports a comparison of how important business leaders having clear vision is at different times.

In other words, for all we know from what the passage says, it could be even more important for business leaders to have clear vision at other times than in times of major downturns.

So, while this choice may be plausible given what the passage says, it does not have to be true given what the passage says.

Eliminate.

(C) All businesses that have survived major downturns have at some point had leaders who were willing to perceive reality accurately.

This choice is interesting.

As discussed above, the passage presents a series of requirements:

A business's surviving a major downturn requires being well managed, which requires a leader with clear vision, which requires willingness to perceive reality accurately.

So, we can see that the passage indicates that a business's surviving a major downturn requires that its leader be willing to perceive reality accurately.

Accordingly, if a business has survived a major downturn, then at the time the business did so, it must have had a leader willing to perceive reality accurately.

Thus, we can say that, given what the passage says, it must be true that any business that has survived a major downturn has at some point, at the time of the downturn, had a leader who was willing to perceive reality accurately.

So, this choice must be true given what the passage says.

Keep.

(D) In a country in which willingness to perceive reality accurately is common among leaders, most businesses will survive a major downturn.

The key to understanding why this choice is incorrect is noticing that the passage indicates only that willingness to perceive reality accurately is necessary for surviving a major downturn. It does not indicate that having a leader who is willing to perceive reality accurately is sufficient for a business to survive a downturn.

So, for all we know given what the passage says, in many cases, businesses with leaders who are willing to perceive reality accurately will not survive a major downturn.

After all, the fact that one requirement for survival has been met doesn't mean that a business will survive. There could be other things that are also required for survival of a major downturn that the business does not meet.

Eliminate.

(E) Any business whose leader is willing to perceive reality accurately will be better managed than a business whose leader is not willing to do so.

The passage doesn't say that a leader's willingness to perceive reality accurately is the only thing required for a business to be well managed.

So, it's possible that, contrary to this choice, some businesses whose leaders are willing to perceive reality accurately will not be better managed than businesses whose leaders are not willing to do so.

For example, a business could have a leader who is willing to perceive reality accurately but is too busy with something else to manage the business well.

Also, a leader could be willing to perceive reality accurately and still not have the clear vision required for managing a business well. After all, the passage doesn't say that willingness to perceive reality accurately is the only thing necessary for clear vision. Other things may be necessary for clear vision as well.

So, this choice doesn't have to be true given what the passage says.

Eliminate.

Correct answer: C