A gift is not generous unless it is intended to benefit the recipient

Question

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 gift is selfish if it is given to benefit the giver or is less valuable than is customary.

Which one of the following judgements most closely conforms to the principle above?

(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.

(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.

(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.

(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.

(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

rakp · Accepted Answer

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 gift is selfish if it is
given to benefit the giver or is less valuable than is
customary.
Which one of the following judgments most closely
conforms to the principle above?
(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.  Charles has no use for the tickets since he hates Opera so an argument can be made that by giving the tickets to his cousin he stands to gain. Plus Charles spend $0 on the tickets. 
(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.  The gift is generous because it is supposed to benefit the recipient. 
(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.  The gift is supposed to benefit the giver so not generous. 
(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 - not generous as all the children expect a computer on their graduation so it did not exceed the daughter's expectation  
(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 :  Michael's gift was generous since he gave more than he had ever given before. Exceeded expectations

sidhu09 · Answer

Why not (A)
Charles hates opera and wants to get rid of the tickets. Hence he gave the tickets away to his cousin, who loves opera as a B'day gift. Charles gift was selfish because it benefitted him in avoiding the opera, but not because he paid nothing for the tickets.

Why not (E)
Micheal gave his nephew a gift that was more than he had ever given before ie more than expected and it would have benefitted his nephew had he not lost it. Hence Micheal is generous.

vibhav · Answer

I had selected A. However after reading rakp's explanation D seems right as well because not generous is not equal to selfish. At the same time A seems right as well, because Charles benefited by avoiding opera. Between A &D its tough choice.

OldFritz · Answer

Aimed straight for D. The rule says that if a gift is generous it both benefits the receiver and exceeds his/her expectations. D fulfills this, since the gift Olga received did NOT exceed her expectations, thus CANNOT be considered generous.

The other options pretty much flout the premises by mix-matching conclusions and premises, thus can easily be gotten rid of by POE.

Cheers,
Der alte Fritz.

bgs4gmat · Answer

Should we expect these type of Q's in GMAT.
This Q is from LSAT 'Principle Example' reasoning. 
I have seen similar Q in OG12 or OG13.

cssk · Answer

+D for me. I think principle questions are rarely tested on GMAT.

sammervash · Answer

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:  
 
a) GENEROUS ---> INTENDED BENEFIT REC. + WORTH MORE

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.

ClassSkippa · Answer

First ....formatting. :D

Second, this argument is actually fairly easy to BOIL down:

Generous Criteria:
* Value MORE than expected
* Benefits Recipient

Selfish Criteria:
* Value LESS than expected
* Benefits Giver

Lastly, to the answer choices! Stat!

(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. He's gift benefited the recipient.
The actual cost (0) doesn't matter because it's not in our definition. 0/2 Criteria are met for Selfish. => NEXT!

(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.
Offended isn't in ANY criteria. Her brother offended and yet STILL benefit from the gift. Out of scope => NEXT!

(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.
Benefits the giver. 1/2 Criteria of Selfish and NOT Generous. Next!

(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.
Although the statement doesn't specify, a laptop as a graduation gift obviously benefits her daughter. (1/2 Criteria for Generous)
Olga gives all her children a laptop when they graduate. Therefore the expected value = a laptop and this gift does not SURPASS the value of the expected gift. It is NOT Generous. NOTE, this doesn't necessarily mean it's SELFISH. There could be third categories such as "HOT & SEXY" that are not mentioned for censor reasons.

Overall, this option looks promising!

(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.
The stem statement doesn't define "benefit". Therefore when his nephew got the $50 but before he lost it, he may have earned bragging rights to his friends - a type of benefit. E requires more information to evaluate. And...we are done!

Overall, this option looks promising! (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. The stem statement doesn't define "benefit". Therefore when his nephew got the $50 but before he lost it, he may have earned bragging rights to his friends - a type of benefit. E requires more information to evaluate. And...we are done!

harsha3699 · Answer

A gift is NOT GENEROUS unless its intended to benefit a recipient and is worth more than what is required
let us break it down..
 A gift is GENEROUS = BENEFITS RECIPIENT + EXPENSIVE .... 1 
The second sentence says that ..a gift is SELFISH if it is given to benefit the giver and is less valuable than customary.
let us break it down again..
 A gift is SELFISH = BENEFITS GIVER + CHEAP ....2 
Question Stem asks us.. which of the following judgements closely conforms the principle above..

A) Charles gets the tickets for opera. He gives the tickets as a gift to his cousin who loves the opera.
 Charles could have sold those tickets and could have given another cheap birthday gift to his cousin, instead he gifted the tickets which in fact worth more than customary since his cousin LOVES the opera. 
A is wrong. 
 B ) Emily gifts her brother a membership in a health club. She feels her brother can get into shape and have a healthy lifestyle. All these positives only help her brother and Emily has nothing to gain from it. The gift is generous and not selfish. This option is right opposite.
B is wrong. 
 C ) Amanda gifts an expensive bottle of wine to her clients. This gift seems to be generous from Amanda's point of view, but are also selfish since Amanda wants business from her clients. This answer could have been correct provided the bottle of wine was moderately priced and not expensive.
C is wrong. 
 D ) Olga gives her daughter a computer as a graduation gift. All the children receive same gifts(as stated in the answer choice). This implies the gift is equal to customary value and is not worth more. So by first statement of Question Stimulus Olga is not generous. The second sentence of this answer choice states the same. 
D is correct. 
 E) Michael gives 50 dollars which is worth more. So from first statement Michael is generous. The fact that the recipient had lost the money is because of recipient's carelessness and it has nothing to do with Michael. Michael is generous but the second sentence of this choice contradicts the same so this choice is wrong.
E is wrong

Correct answer D

RamSep · Answer

I think this is far away from a standard CR.

GMAT0010 · Answer

Ok:

Let's take some variables:
Generous = G, Benefits = B, Value = V , Expectations = E , Selfish = S
So
1. G -> B + >E
2. S-> B + <V
Now : ~B or <=E-> ~G
~B or >= V -> ~S
Now look at the options:
Only D makes a lot of sense.
Hope this helps

gmat1393 · Answer

Hi  nightblade354

Please change the tag to similar reasoning.

Thanks

CEdward · Answer

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 gift is selfish if it is given to benefit the giver or is less valuable than is customary.

Which one of the following judgements most closely conforms to the principle above?

(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. X
-‘he paid nothing for the tickets’ is the problem with this statement…the principle above states nothing about the relationship between how much one needs to shell out and whether a gift is generous or not

(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. X
-again, the principle does not address the feelings of the recipient

(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. X
-this violates the principle …What Amanda is doing is selfish, not generous.

(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. Olga’s gifting of the computer is indeed not generous b/c it is NOT worth more than what is expected or customary, despite her satisfying the initial condition (intention to benefit the recipient)…you need both conditions to be satisfied.

(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 X
-again, this violates…we can’t pin his nephew’s carelessness on Michael

Thekingmaker · Answer

Simply kill the thumbs up button if more chaos is not be forcasted the main idea of winning over it's just to make sure all the given points are upheld the only option that matches all the criteria is then the road to the correct answer is pretty simple

unraveled · Answer

I. Gift is not generous unless:
1. it benefits the recipient 
2. if it is worth more than what is expected or customary

II. Gift is selfish:
1. if it benefits the giver 
2. if it is less valuable than is customary

What condition does each choice fulfil or don't.
A. - Contradicts II-1
B. - Contradicts II-1 
C. - Contradicts I-1
D. - Fulfils I-1/2
E. - Contradicts I-1

Bit difficult. Problem is with understanding "not generous" with "generous".

Answer D.

A gift is not generous unless it is intended to benefit the recipient

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