Logic question

ChristReigns

Alphonse is the sort of guy who, if he marries a beautiful woman, will be jealous, and if he marries an ugly woman, will be discontent. Moreover, you can be sure that if he is either jealous or discontent, his marriage cannot last long. Alphonse did get married and recently celebrated his 50th wedding anniversary. What sort of a girl did he marry?

Matt Sorr

Sounds like it may be a false binary. It's possible Alphonse married neither a beautiful woman nor an ugly woman. Maybe he married an average woman and, as a result, he's neither jealous nor discontent. He also could've married a man, in which case he may also not be jealous or discontent.

It's totally possible I'm missing another flaw, however, so I can't confidently answer this question without knowing what the answer choices are. Often, and particularly with argument that have unconventional flaws, I don't see the flaw the stimulus is testing until I go into the answers.

blanklaw

It took me a second but I think I got it-- it's a play on the words of "50th wedding anniversary" in other words, we have no indication that there was a marriage that lasted long because he could have had 50 different wedding anniversaries-- in which case NO marriage lasted long (that would be crazy-- 50 different marriages... ouch!). The question is baiting the reader to make that assumption that Alphonse's marriage lasted a long time. So in short, he could've married either or both a beautiful or ugly woman in one of his 50 possible marriages

blanklaw

@ChristReigns Did I get it right?