Self-study
Unless negotiations begin soon, the cease-fire will be violated by one of the two sides to the dispute. ████████████ ████ ██ ████ ████ ██ █████ █████████ ████ █████████ ███ ███ █████ ██ ██████████ ██ █████████ ████ ██████ ████ ██ █████ █████████ ████████ ████ ████████ ██████████ ███ █████████████ ███ ██ ████████████ ████ ██ ████ █████ █████████████ ██████ █████████ ███ ██████████ ████ ████████████ █████ ███████ ██ ███████ ███ ██████████ ████ ██████ █████ ████ ███████████ █ █████ █████████ ███ ███ ███ █████ ██ ██████ █████████
Distilled List Of Claims
In Must Be True questions, we can just treat the stimulus as a big ol’ list of rules – 10 commandments style – any one of which could hold the key to the correct answer. In this stimulus, translating the claims correctly demands fluency in conditional indicators. Here’s a distilled list of those claims:
From the stem: Negotiations will begin soon
If negotiations don’t begin soon … [blah blah no one cares]*There are three prerequisites for negotiations to be held:
Pressure from other countries International troops demonstrate their ability to enforce Suppress a major incentive to keep fighting
Agreement requires continuing pressure from other countries
*Because the stem tells us negotiations will be held soon, this rule about what happens if negotiations are not held soon is moot.
The major inference we can draw from these claims is this:
Since the negotiations will indeed begin soon, the three prerequisites must have been fulfilled.
25.
If the statements above are █████ ███ ██ ████████████ ███████ ███ ███ █████ ██ █████ █████ ██ ███ ████ █████ ████████████ █████ ████ ██ ███ █████████ ████ ████ ██ ████ ███████
a
The cease-fire has ███ ████ ████████ ██ ██████ ██ ███ ███ ██████
(A) looks like a proper inference if you mistranslate the stimulus’ first sentence by confusing sufficiency and necessity. Here are two accurate translations of the stimulus’ claim:
- If negotiations don’t begin soon, the cease-fire will be violated.
- If we’re living in a world where the cease-fire will not be violated, negotiations will begin soon.
The beginning of negotiations is a necessary – not a sufficient – condition for the cease-fire to hold. Contrary to (A), the rule does not trigger if negotiations do begin soon.
b
International troops enforcing ███ ██████████ ████ ████████████ ████ ████ ███ ███████ ██████████ ████ ██████ ██ ███ ███ ██████
Because negotiations will in fact begin soon, we know all the prerequisites for those negotiations will be fulfilled.
c
A major incentive ███ ███ ███ █████ ██ ██████ ███████████ ███ ████ ███████████
Because negotiations will in fact begin soon, we know all the prerequisites for those negotiations will be fulfilled.
d
Other countries have ███████ ████████ ██ ███ ███ █████ ██ ███ ████████
Because negotiations will in fact begin soon, we know all the prerequisites for those negotiations will be fulfilled.
e
The negotiations’ reaching ██ █████████ ███████ ██ ████ ██ ███ ███████ ██ █████ ██████████
(E)’s support comes entirely from one claim in the stimulus: