Steve and JoAnne are both members of a certain club, though they are

Question

Steve and JoAnne are both members of a certain club, though they are not speaking to each other. Cecily, the club president, is appointing members to the fundraising committee, but she has resolved that she will not appoint anyone without his or her explicit consent. Steve tells Cecily, 'I will not consent to appointment on that committee unless I know whether JoAnne is to be a member of it.' And JoAnne says, 'I will not consent to be a member of that committee unless I know whether Steve will be appointed to it.'

If all three of these people stick by these resolutions, then:

A) Neither of them can be appointed to the committee.
B) The situation described in the scenario cannot arise, because it is inherently incoherent.
C) They must either both be appointed or both be left out.
D) The committee may finally have one of them, both of them, or neither of them as members.
E) Either one of them can be appointed, but not both.

gmat1220 · Answer

Only 2 cases-
Steve says to cecily : I don't want it
Joanne sys to cecily: ok I consent to the appointment

Joanne says to cecily : I don't want it
Steve says to cecily : ok I consent to the appointment

So their appointment is mutually exclusive.

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Deckard22 · Answer

What's the source of this one?

If we're to infer that by 'not speaking to each other' then they 'won't serve together on the same committee', then the answer would be E. I believe this was an inference we were supposed to draw from the passages first sentence and therefore E is correct.

Without making the inference that 'not speaking to each other' translates to 'won't serve together,' choice D have been the correct answer

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jko · Answer

This question seems a bit slightly convoluted.

When Steve tells Cecily "I wont join until I know whether JoAnne is to be a member of it", there's an obvious next question here: "Well if she IS a member of it, will you join it?".

Similarly when Cecily asks Joanne.

One can assume, based on the context, that the answer is no; but it's possible that both Steve and JoAnne will join regardless, and just want to know ahead of time whether the other will be there, to prepare themselves.

If this is the case, then Cecily can use some basic logic to determine that both of them will join the committee, and can thus answer the question of 'is Joanne going to be on the committee?' and 'is Steve going to be on the committee?'.

Is this an LSAT question?

gmatpapa · Answer

Why would Steve say "I dont want the job". As per stimulus, wouldn't he want to know whether Joanne has consented her appointment?

And the same should apply to Joanne also right?

So IMO they will never be able to conclusively decide whether they want to give their consent for their selection. I picked B.

GMATmission · Answer

I picked D as the correct option because the stimulus does not mention whether S and C will work together of they are not talking to each other. They still may work together. Am I thinking too much?? Can experts throw some light in this?

thanks.

JeeMat · Answer

I'm going for E.

Why? Cecily will only appoint them AFTER they have given consent. So the first thing that needs to happen is for them to say yes or no to a possible appointment.

Steve and JoAnne do NOT sey they won't give consent if they other one does, too. They're just saying they want to know what's happening first. Due to the constellation, none of them will say yes without external influence.

So the only option for at least one of them is if Cecily (!) decides NOT to appoint Steve OR Joanne OR both. If, for example, she's saying "Hey Steve. I'm not going to appoint Joanne" then Steve will know whether Joanne will be a member and so he can make his decision and possibly say yes.

But that obviously requires that at most one of them can become part of the team because Cecily musn't appoint one of them. Hence, E.

prasun9 · Answer

The way I read the question, it says
Cecily will not  appoint  anyone without explicit consent. But note that she can  reject  anyone without any consent.
Now Steve and Joanne don't speak with each other, so they can't provide consent together. 
And either will not provide consent unless he knows whether the other person is admitted. So there is no chance that both can provide consent and be appointed.

But Cecily can reject either one of them and then the other can provide consent and be admitted.

Lets take the case if Cecily 1st goes to Steve to get his consent and Steve wants to know will Joanne be admitted. Since Cecily doesn't have a consent from Joanne, she can't admit Joanne, but she can reject Joanne and then Steve will have no problem in providing a consent and joining the committee.

Similarly Cecily can reject Steve, get consent from Joanne and admit him. But she will never be able to admit both Steve and Joanne as it is a deadlock situation.

Hence  E  is the correct option. E) Either one of them can be appointed, but not both.

samusa · Answer

How can we assume that she will ask one at a time?
What if she asks both at the same time?
If she asks both of these guys at the same time, then neither of them of will get selected.

Please explain.

prasun9 · Answer

Your observation is right but there isn't any option that says  "Either or  none  of the them can be appointed." 
If this were an option then it would have been correct.

cledgard · Answer

E) Either one of them   can   be appointed, but not both.

The key word is   can  . That includes the possibility that none of them is appointed.

cledgard · Answer

In order to give his or her consent, one of them needs to know whether the other is appointed. This situation does not prevent any of them TO REFUSE the appointment.

4 cases:

Possibility A: each keeps waiting indefinitely.  Neither  can be appointed.
Possibility B: Steve says no, or Cecily decides on her own not to appoint him.  JoAnne  gives her consent and she can be appointed.
Possibility C: JoAnne says no, or Cecily decides on her own not to appoint her.  Steve  gives his consent and he can be appointed.
Possibility D: Both of them refuse the appointment.  Neither  can be appointed.

Answer is E

Aprck · Answer

I still cannot understand how E is correct. What if both of them refuse to accept the offer. What is they actually want to work together?

And why can't Do be correct? It covers all the possible scenarios. So how can we eliminate it?
please help

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vijaykhot · Answer

Does not speaking to each other mean that they won't work together?

Sapnilbhatnagar · Answer

Dear Experts,

Please shed light on the correct answer.

svasan05 · Answer

A) Neither of them can be appointed to the committee.  Incorrect. There is a way for  one  of them to be appointed. Details in option (E). Eliminate.

B) The situation described in the scenario cannot arise, because it is inherently incoherent.  The situation is perfectly clear - not incoherent. Eliminate.

C) They must either both be appointed or both be left out.  Since neither will consent without knowing the other's status, and Cecily will not appoint anyone without their consent, it is not possible to appoint  both  to the committee. Eliminate.

D) The committee may finally have one of them, both of them, or neither of them as members.  Same problem as in (C). Eliminate.

E) Either one of them can be appointed, but not both.  Correct answer. Since Cecily's resolution is only about the decision to appoint, she can very well take the decision to  not appoint  either one of Steve and JoAnne. Once that decision is taken, it can be communicated to the other, who may choose to then be part of the committee. In this way, one of them can be a part of the committee but there is no way for both of them to be a part of the committee.

Hope this helps.

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Steve and JoAnne are both members of a certain club, though they are

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