Self-study
Commentator: If a political administration is both economically successful and successful at protecting individual liberties, then it is an overall success. ████ ██ ██████████████ ████ █████ ██ ████ ███ ███ ███████████ ███ ███████ ███████ ██ ██ ████████ ██████████ ██████████ ██ ████ ███ ███████ ██████████████ ███ ███ █████ ███ ███ ███████████ ███ ███ ████████████ █████████ ██████████ ██████████
Summary
The stimulus can be diagrammed as follows:
Notable Valid Inferences
If the present administration is economically successful, then it is an overall success.
3.
If all of the statements █████ ███ █████ ████ █████ ███ ██ ███ █████████ ████ ██ █████
a
The present administration ██ ████████████ ███████████
Could be false. Based on the information in the stimulus, there’s no reason to believe that the administration is economically successful or that it is not.
b
The present administration ██ ███ ██ ███████ ████████
Could be false. The stimulus tells us that the present administration satisfies half the sufficient condition for overall success, and it does not tell us whether or not it satisfies the other half. If it is economically successful, then it’s an overall success and (B) is false.
c
If the present ██████████████ ██ ████████████ ███████████ ████ ██ ██ ██ ███████ ████████
Must be true. We know that the present administration has protected individual liberties, and (C) tells us that it’s also been economically successful. As shown below, these two conditions combine to form the sufficient condition for overall success.
d
If the present ██████████████ ███ ████ ████████████ ███████████ ██ █████ ████ █████ ███ ███ ████████████
Could be false. In this question, caring for the environment is a bit of a red herring: it is not part of the sufficient condition or the necessary condition, and we can neither use it to draw a valid conclusion nor conclude anything about it.
e
If the present ██████████████ ████████ ██ █████████████ ███████████ ████ ██ ████ ██ ██ ███████ ████████
Could be false. In this question, caring for or protecting the environment is a bit of a red herring: it is not part of the sufficient condition or the necessary condition, and we can neither use it to draw a valid conclusion nor conclude anything about it.