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Can anybody explain why choice E is not valid? I understand why A is correct, but it also seems to me that E should be correct as well. Thanks for the help.

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Read the stimulus: "...she will ALMOST CERTAINLY appoint Lee to be the new head of the arts commission."

E says that the only way to repay Lee would be to appoint him that position.

Read the stimulus again from the beginning "Drabble ALWAYS repays her political debts." We know that she is in debt to Lee somehow and she WILL repay him, according to the stimulus. The stimulus then says she will almost certainly appoint him, if she does not then she will do something else to pay her debt to Lee, since she ALWAYS does.

Now, if you chose E and she was not able to appoint Lee then she would remain in debt since that is the ONLY way she can adequately pay Lee back. With this answer choice she will not be able to do anything else to repay Lee since she can ONLY appoint him to that position, thus leaving her in debt to Lee. That goes against what the stimulus is saying, thus making it an incorrect answer choice.

Making A the most suitable assumption to make the argument complete.

So would you say that if the phrase 'almost certainly' was changed to simply 'certainly', E would be correct?

E is a sufficient assumption (i.e. it makes the argument follow logically). It is not required. For instance, E could be false, but Lee might be the only person to whom the mayor is indebted and would almost certainly (or certainly -- it doesn't matter) receive the position.

The problem with this question is that it has no correct answer. A isn't a required assumption. It's very close, but under certain reasonable assumptions, it may not be required. If this question appeared on my actual test, I would have written to the LSAC and asked that they remove this question.

stonto wrote:So would you say that if the phrase 'almost certainly' was changed to simply 'certainly', E would be correct?

Not necessarily- I mean if it was a must be true question or like question then it would definitely be a strong answer to choose.

I guess I don't see the difference between a must be true question and an assumption question. Every assumption must be true, right?

A required assumption question is the exact same thing as a must be true question.

hax123 wrote:E is a sufficient assumption (i.e. it makes the argument follow logically). It is not required. For instance, E could be false, but Lee might be the only person to whom the mayor is indebted and would almost certainly (or certainly -- it doesn't matter) receive the position.

The problem with this question is that it has no correct answer. A isn't a required assumption. It's very close, but under certain reasonable assumptions, it may not be required. If this question appeared on my actual test, I would have written to the LSAC and asked that they remove this question.

E can't be the right answer because it limits the scope of the stimulus. It states that it is almost certain she'll give him the job. We cannot assume that the ONLY way is for her to give him the job. Making E an incredibly wrong choice.

stonto wrote:I guess I don't see the difference between a must be true question and an assumption question. Every assumption must be true, right?

Well say this question were a MBT question. E would still be incorrect. E doesn't HAVE to be true.

harut44 wrote:

hax123 wrote: E can't be the right answer because it limits the scope of the stimulus. It states that it is almost certain she'll give him the job. We cannot assume that the ONLY way is for her to give him the job. Making E an incredibly wrong choice.

Yep. Although Lee has wanted the job for a long time, it never said anywhere that the ONLY way to repay Lee was to give him the job, the mayor could possibly repay him back another way.