Bunuel
A play was performed as part of a benefit for a charity. Nobody who wanted to buy tickets to the benefit had ever seen the play performed before. Because of the high demand, only people who had never seen the play performed before were allowed to buy tickets for the benefit. Therefore, everyone who wanted to buy a ticket to the benefit was able to do so.
In order for this argument to be logically correct, it must also be true that
A. the people planning the benefit wanted to expose the play to a new audience
B. the play was not performed in a small theater with few seats
C. everyone who wanted to buy a ticket believed in the cause for which the benefit was held
D. there was no limit to the number of tickets available
E. everyone who was unable to buy a ticket did not want to buy one
Official ExplanationIdentify the Question Type:This is an Assumption question, though it may not be immediately obvious from the question stem. The answer is something that
“must also be true” for the logic of the argument to be correct. That's an assumption: something that the author doesn’t state, but that must be true for the conclusion to follow.
Untangle the Stimulus:The conclusion of this argument is found in the last sentence, after the keyword
"therefore": everyone who wanted to buy a ticket to the benefit was able to do so. The first piece of evidence is that people who wanted to buy tickets to the benefit had never seen the play before. The second piece of evidence is that only people who had never seen the play were allowed to buy tickets to the benefit.
Predict the Answer:The assumption will link the author’s evidence and conclusion. According to the evidence, everyone interested in seeing the show had never seen it before, which means they're the only ones allowed to buy tickets. That doesn't mean they're guaranteed tickets. It's just that nobody else can buy them. However, the author concludes they were all able to get tickets. That assumes everyone who wanted tickets did, in fact, get tickets. And if they all got tickets, that means anyone who did not get tickets didn't really want them in the first place.
Evaluate the Choices:(E) matches the prediction and is correct.
(A) is irrelevant because the motivation for the restriction on ticket sales has nothing to do with the conclusion, which is concerned only with the desire to buy a ticket and the ability to do so.
(B) is incorrect because the size of the theater or the number of seats is irrelevant. Whether the theater had 100 seats or 100,000 seats, all that matters is that high demand placed restrictions on the tickets sold.
(C) is incorrect because believing in the cause has absolutely nothing to do with the desire to get a ticket or with the ability to do so.
(D) contradicts what is stated in the argument. The argument states that "because of high demand," tickets were limited to only those who had not seen the play before.
Answer: ETAKEAWAY: When asked for something that must be true, be very strict with the choices. Must be true means absolutely certain.