I had (B) on this. My inclination was to diagram the statement like this
Jenny lots of Ballons--->> Birthday party
No balloons
Therefore, no birthday party
Can someone explain why the conditional is the other way around???? Thanks
Preptest 28 sec. 3 #21 Forum
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Christine (MLSAT)
- Posts: 357
- Joined: Fri Nov 22, 2013 3:41 pm
Re: Preptest 28 sec. 3 #21
Hey Itowns1!
The first sentence of (B) tells us that Jenny will have lots of balloons at her birthday party. There's nothing that suggests that she's not allowed to have lots of balloons other times also! Maybe she has lots of balloons every Saturday, but also at her birthday party! So, balloons aren't a guarantee of anything - it could be any random day, not just birthday party day.
But if I KNOW she'll have balloons at her party, then her party is sufficient information to guarantee that there are lots of balloons there.
It's just like if I said that I'll have pizza tonight. That's not "pizza --> tonight" - maybe I have pizza all the time! It's "tonight --> pizza".
(As a side note, notice that the conditional in (B) is about her birthday party, while the conclusion is about whether it is actually her birthday. People have birthday parties on days other than their actual birthday all the time, so we have a scope shift here that should be an additional red flag.)
The first sentence of (B) tells us that Jenny will have lots of balloons at her birthday party. There's nothing that suggests that she's not allowed to have lots of balloons other times also! Maybe she has lots of balloons every Saturday, but also at her birthday party! So, balloons aren't a guarantee of anything - it could be any random day, not just birthday party day.
But if I KNOW she'll have balloons at her party, then her party is sufficient information to guarantee that there are lots of balloons there.
It's just like if I said that I'll have pizza tonight. That's not "pizza --> tonight" - maybe I have pizza all the time! It's "tonight --> pizza".
(As a side note, notice that the conditional in (B) is about her birthday party, while the conclusion is about whether it is actually her birthday. People have birthday parties on days other than their actual birthday all the time, so we have a scope shift here that should be an additional red flag.)
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ltowns1
- Posts: 717
- Joined: Mon May 26, 2014 1:13 am
Re: Preptest 28 sec. 3 #21
Christine (MLSAT) wrote:Hey Itowns1!
The first sentence of (B) tells us that Jenny will have lots of balloons at her birthday party. There's nothing that suggests that she's not allowed to have lots of balloons other times also! Maybe she has lots of balloons every Saturday, but also at her birthday party! So, balloons aren't a guarantee of anything - it could be any random day, not just birthday party day.
But if I KNOW she'll have balloons at her party, then her party is sufficient information to guarantee that there are lots of balloons there.
It's just like if I said that I'll have pizza tonight. That's not "pizza --> tonight" - maybe I have pizza all the time! It's "tonight --> pizza".
(As a side note, notice that the conditional in (B) is about her birthday party, while the conclusion is about whether it is actually her birthday. People have birthday parties on days other than their actual birthday all the time, so we have a scope shift here that should be an additional red flag.)
CHRISTINE my favorite LSAT WISE PERSON! Lol thanks
