Self-study
Support Unless the building permit is obtained by February 1 of this year or some of the other activities necessary for construction of the new library can be completed in less time than originally planned, the new library will not be completed on schedule. ██ ██ ███ █████ ████ ███ ████████ ██████ ██████ ██ ████████ ██ ████████ ██ ██ ███ ███ ███████ ████ ███ ██ █████████ ██ █████████
Summary
The library won’t be completed on schedule. Two premises support this:
1. If the building permit isn’t obtained by February 1 and none of the other construction activities can be completed more quickly than planned, then the library won’t be completed on schedule.
2. The building permit won’t be obtained by February 1.
Missing Connection
In order to validly conclude that the library will not be completed on schedule, we need to know that the permit won’t be obtained by February 1 and that none of the other construction activities will be completed in less time than planned. We know that the permit won’t come through on time, so we just need to know that none of the activities will be completed more quickly than planned!
3.
The conclusion drawn follows logically ████ ███ ████████ ██ █████ ███ ██ ███ █████████ ██ ████████
a
All of the █████ ██████████ █████████ ███ ████████████ ██ ███ ███████ ████ ████ ██ █████ ██ ████ ████ ██ ██████████ ████████
If we combine (A) with the second premise—that the building permit won’t be obtained by February 1—we get the full sufficient condition from the conditional premise! That means the necessary condition (that the library won’t be done on time) follows logically.
b
The officials in ██████ ██ ████████████ ██ ███ ███ ███████ ████ ████████ ████ ██ ████████ ████ ███ ██ █████████ ██ █████████
We don’t care what the officials have said! This doesn’t help link the premises with the conclusion, so it doesn’t allow us to validly reach the argument’s conclusion.
c
The application for █ ████████ ██████ ███ █████████ ██ ███████ █ ██ ████ █████ ███ ██████████ ████████ ███████ ██████ █████ ██ █████ ███ ███████
We already know that the permit can’t be obtained by February 1, so this doesn’t help us. We need an answer choice that supplies the other half of the sufficient condition: that the other activities won’t be completed in less time than originally planned.
d
The application for █ ████████ ██████ ███ ████████ ███ █████ ████ ██ ███ ██████████ ███ ██ ███ ██ ██ ███████████ ████ █ ███████ ████████ █████
We already know that the permit can’t be obtained by February 1, and it doesn’t matter why! We need an answer choice that supplies the other half of the sufficient condition: that the other activities won’t be completed in less time than originally planned.
e
It is not ████████ ██ ████████ ███████████ ██ █████ ████████████ ██ ███ ███████ ██ █████ ██████ ███ ████████ ██████ ██ █████████
We know that the building permit is necessary for timely completion of the library; it doesn’t matter why. That half of the sufficient condition is already satisfied: the permit won’t be obtained on time.