The amount of time required to process the application forms before

Question

The amount of time required to process the application forms before the deadline is more time than Jones currently has available. In addition, Jones needs at least one assistant to help him with the processing of the forms, and currently no one is available to assist him nor will anyone be available prior to the deadline. Thus, it cannot be the case that Jones will complete the processing of the forms by the deadline.

The pattern of reasoning displayed in the argument above is most closely parallel to that in which of the following arguments?

(A) Every employee of the Altierra Corporation receives three weeks of vacation, and since Maya is an employee of the Altierra Corporation, she must have receive three weeks of vacation.

(B) The building on State Street owned by Jared should be demolished. Up until last year the building was in excellent shape, but since that point the building has become uninhabitable and a danger to the public.

(C) All of the students that attend Chase Elementary live in the area immediately surrounding the school. Kofi lives within sight of Chase Elementary, and therefore Kofi must attend the school.

(D) To approve a resolution in the town of Livington, it must have the mayor’s signature, and Resolution 27 lacks that signature. Moreover, successful resolutions must also have the approval of a majority of the council members, and Resolution 27 lacks that as well. Thus, Resolution 27 will not be approved by the town.

(E) To be awarded the Certificate of Merit at this school, you must maintain a perfect grade point average. Tomas has not maintained a perfect grade point average at this school, so he cannot receive the Certificate of Merit.

DAVEexamPAL · Answer

The answer is (D).

The pattern of reasoning is this: in order for something to be true (completing the processing on time), two things need to be true (having enough time and having help), but since they aren't - it isn't true.  This is a pattern which (D) follows , with the thing being resolution 27 passage, and the conditions being having the mayor's signature and having the approve of council members.

Breaking this down with more logical detail: 
 
The pattern of reasoning can be broken down thusly:

Let's call these three claims (A), (B) and (C):
(a) Jones will complete the processing of the forms by deadline 
(b) Jones has enough time to process the forms 
(c) Jones will have someone to help him

The argument is:
1) For Jones to finish on time, both conditions (having enough time and having an assistant) must occur.
2) Both conditions are not true: Jones has neither enough time, nor help. 
Conclusion: 
3) Jones will not complete the processing of the forms on time

So, the pattern of reasoning is: 
 (1) if (a) is true, then (b) and also (c) must be true. (a) ===> (b) ^ (c)
(2) Both (b) and (c) are not true. (~ (b) ^ ~ (c))
---- 
Conclusion: a is not true: (~ (a))

(D) fits this pattern exactly.  We just have to redefine (a), (b) and (c) as: 
(a) Resolution 27 will be approved
(b) Resolution 27 has the mayor's signature.
(c) Resolution 27 has the approval of a majority of the council members. 
 
The above pattern applies precisely:

(1) if (a) is true, then (b) and also (c) must be true. (a) ===> (b) ^ (c)
(2) Both (b) and (c) are not true. (~ (b) ^ ~ (c))
---- 
Conclusion: a is not true: (~ (a))

As always, we can also solve by eliminating the other options: 
(A) Every employee of the Altierra Corporation receives three weeks of vacation, and since Maya is an employee of the Altierra Corporation, she must have receive three weeks of vacation.
 this is a pattern of: if (a) is true then (b) is true, and since (a) is true, then (b) is (with (a) being being an employee of Altierra, and (b) receiving vacation). Nope! 
 
(B) The building on State Street owned by Jared should be demolished. Up until last year the building was in excellent shape, but since that point the building has become uninhabitable and a danger to the public.  this argument doesn't follow any pattern of reasoning on its own, but rather it relies on assumptions which, even though they make sense, are unstated (such as: if a building is inhabitable, it must be demolished). Not the pattern we are looking for

(C) All of the students that attend Chase Elementary live in the area immediately surrounding the school. Kofi lives within sight of Chase Elementary, and therefore Kofi must attend the school.  This is the (flawed and mistaken) structure of: if (a) then (b), and since (b) then (a). ((a) being attending chase, (b) living close to Chase). not logically true, and not the the pattern we are looking for

(E) To be awarded the Certificate of Merit at this school, you must maintain a perfect grade point average. Tomas has not maintained a perfect grade point average at this school, so he cannot receive the Certificate of Merit.  pattern: if (a) then (b), and since not (a), then not (b) ((a)- getting Certificate of Merit, (b) maintaining perfect GPA). Not the patter we are looking for

dcummins · Answer

This question is sourced from the Powerscore CR Bible

SPatel1992 · Answer

Hi! All the options sound the same to me

Can any explain how this type of questions works?

dcummins · Answer

This is a more abstract CR question type called Method of Reasoning / Parallel Reasoning, which requires you to mimic the type of thinking displayed in the stimulus into the answer choice whether that type of reasoning is correct / incorrect.

Do not focus on subject matter, but rather the type of thinking e.g. if there is Causal reasoning/ Conditional Reasoning then we must mimic this.

jahongirnorimov · Answer

Let's examine each premise:

Premise:  The amount of time required to process the application forms before the deadline is
more time than Jones currently has available.

The premise indicates that Jones does not have enough time to process the application forms before
the deadline, a fact that is then reflected in the language of the conclusion.

Premise:  In addition, Jones needs at least one assistant to help him with the processing of the
forms, and currently no one is available to assist him nor will anyone be available prior
to the deadline.

If Jones needs an assistant to process the forms and there is no assistant available, then that also
shows that the forms cannot be processed by the deadline. Thus, each premise alone is enough to
show that the conclusion is true.

Turning to the answers, you should look for the answer that has two independent premises that both
prove the conclusion. Because there are two premises, this “premise test” will take longer to apply
and this is one reason we typically look at the conclusion in a Parallel Reasoning question before
examining the premises.

Answer choice (A):  This answer contains a conditional Repeat form, and as such, the two premises
work together. Since the structure of the answer is different from that of the stimulus, the answer
choice is incorrect.

Answer choice (B):  Only the second premise in this answer choice proves the conclusion;  the first
premise is irrelevant to the conclusion.  Therefore, this answer is incorrect.
As mentioned before, this answer choice is also suspect because the conclusion is different from that
in the stimulus (it uses “should” instead of “cannot”).

Answer choice (C):  There are two excellent reasons to eliminate this answer choice:
1. The answer choice contains invalid reasoning.
2. The two premises work together and are not independent as in the stimulus.

Answer choice (D):   This is the correct answer. As with the argument in the stimulus, each premise in
this answer choice separately supports the conclusion.

Answer choice (E):  This answer is very similar to answer choice (A), and contains a valid form of
conditional reasoning based on the Repeat form. Since the two premises work together and neither
proves the conclusion alone, this answer choice is incorrect.

VerbalBot · Answer

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