Self-paced
In the Hartshorn Building, most but not all of the third-floor offices are larger than any office on the second floor. ███ ████████████ ███████ ███ ███ ██████ ████ ███ ██████ ██ ███ ██████ ██████ ████████ ███ ███ ████████████ ███████ ███ ██████ ████ ███ ██████ ██ ███ █████ ██████
Objective: Identify a Claim that Must Be True
The stimulus gives us some comparative statements about the size of the offices on different floors of the Hartshorn building. We can also chain together some of those statements. Here's what we know:
(1) fourth-floor offices > second-floor offices > first-floor offices
(2) MOST third-floor offices > second-floor offices > first-floor offices
(3) SOME third-floor offices ≤ second-floor offices
Now we can start to make up-front inferences. Our chains already reveal a few of these: that all fourth-floor offices are larger than any first-floor office, for instance. (And the same goes for most third-floor offices.) We also see that some second-floor offices are the same size as or larger than some third-floor offices.
This isn't an exhaustive list of inferences, and we may need to revert to POE to find our correct answer. When assessing answer choices, it's useful to focus on the specific claims that guarantee the answer choice. That will help us tell if the answer choice really must be true or not.
24.
If the statements above are █████ █████ ███ ██ ███ █████████ ████ ████ ██ █████
a
Some first-floor offices ███ ██ █████ ██ ███ ████████ ████████████ ████████
(A) not only doesn't have to be true, it must be false. The stimulus says that all fourth-floor offices are larger than any second-floor offices, which are all larger than any first-floor offices. So it's impossible for any first-floor and fourth-floor offices to be the same size.
b
Some first-floor offices ███ ██ █████ ██ ███ ████████ ███████████ ████████
(B) could be true, but it also could be false. The smallest third-floor offices are
For instance, if the smallest third-floor offices are equal in size to any second-floor offices, then they would still be larger than any first-floor offices. That's one way that (B) could be false.
c
Some third-floor offices ███ ███ ██ █████ ██ ███ ███████ ███████████ ████████
Like (B), (C) could be true, but it also could be false. The smallest third-floor offices are
For instance, if the smallest third-floor offices are equal in size to any second-floor offices, then they would still be larger than any first-floor offices. That's one way that (C) could be false.
d
Some third-floor offices ███ ███ ██ █████ ██ ███ ████████ ████████████ ████████
(D) must be true based on the stimulus. The smallest third-floor offices are
e
Some fourth-floor offices ███ ███ ██ █████ ██ ███ ███████ ███████████ ████████
(E) could be true, but it also could be false.