Inference Question

[mrueda08]

Among a certain group of teachers Ms. Albright has more experience than all but two of her colleagues, and Mrs. Lovejoy has more experience than all but three of her colleagues.

The question asks what can we infer.

Answer: No Teacher has more experience than Mrs. Lovejoy but less experience than Ms. Albright.

Is this the right answer because both teachers could have EQUAL experience to the "but two" and "but three" colleagues?

[noah]

Among a certain group of teachers Ms. Albright has more experience than all but two of her colleagues, and Mrs. Lovejoy has more experience than all but three of her colleagues.

The question asks what can we infer.

Answer: No Teacher has more experience than Mrs. Lovejoy but less experience than Ms. Albright.

Is this the right answer because both teachers could have EQUAL experience to the "but two" and "but three" colleagues?

Not quite. Let's imagine there are 5 teachers. The ranking would look like this, from most experience to least:

Teacher 1
Teacher 2
Albright
Lovejoy
Teacher 5

If we had someone else in there, like this:

Teacher 1
Teacher 2
Albright
Ms. In-between
Lovejoy
Teacher 5

The facts we were told--which we have to accept--would not hold true. Lovejoy would have 4 more experienced than she.

The situation doesn't change if there are ties:

Teacher 1 & Teacher 2
Albright
Lovejoy
Teacher 5

Note that you can't have Albright be tied with someone, or else Lovejoy would have more than 3 in front of her.

That help? Pretty confusing stuff!