If you have a large amount of money in the bank, your spending power i

Explanation

This stimulus presents a fairly simple, valid conditional argument:

Premises: If you have a lot of money in the bank, your spending power is great, and if your spending power is great, then you are happy:

Lot of $ → great spending power → happy

Conclusion: If you have a lot of money in the bank, you are happy:

Lot of $ → happy

Based on the two diagrams above, we can see that the conclusion is valid, and the correct answer choice should reflect similar argumentation (A→B→C, therefore, A → C).

Answer choice (A): While this answer choice begins along the right lines, the new condition, "comfortable life," means that this answer choice is invalid, and fails to parallel the argumentation in the stimulus.

Answer choice (B): As with incorrect answer choice above, the argumentation here is invalid—this choice incorrectly links two necessary conditions—so this answer choice cannot parallel the argument in the stimulus and cannot be correct.

Answer choice (C): This is the correct answer choice, and can be diagrammed as follows:

Premises: Swim energetically → heart rate increases → overexcited

Conclusion: Therefore, Swim energetically → overexcited

As we can see from the diagrams above, this conclusion is valid, and it parallels the author's argumentation found in the stimulus.

Answer choice (D): This answer choice parallels the invalid reasoning found in answer choice (B) above, unjustifiably linking two necessary conditions, so this answer choice cannot parallel the valid reasoning in the stimulus.

Answer choice (E): We should know immediately to beware of this answer choice, because it deals with similar-sounding conditions—a common component of attractive wrong answer choices on the LSAT. While it deals with the topic of money in the bank, it reflects flawed reasoning, in this case incorrectly linking the two sufficient conditions of "large amount of money," and "optimistic by nature."

The correct answer choice is (C)