Q25 - Shopkeeper: Our city will soon approve

[Laura Damone]

Question Type:
Match the Reasoning

Stimulus Breakdown:
Conclusion: The shopkeeper won't relocate to the new shopping center.

Evidence: The store needs to be in a high-visibility site with good growth potential. The new shopping center will be at either Maple Street or West Avenue. The Maple street site lacks visibility and the West Avenue site has poor growth potential.

Answer Anticipation:
This looks like a valid argument. It establishes two necessary conditions, and when neither site meets both, concludes that the shop won't be moving. Anticipate wrong answers that don't have the "two necessary condition" structure or that lack two distinct options, each of which fails in some way.

Correct answer:
D

Answer choice analysis:
(A) Lacks two distinct options. Eliminate.

(B) So close! We have two necessary conditions and two distinct options. The problem lies in the fact that one of the options fulfills both of the necessary conditions!

(C) This looks right. Two necessary conditions (cheap flight and stay with friend). Two options (Bridgeport and Hazelton), each of which fails to fulfill a different one of the two necessary conditions. Keep it.

(D) This looks right, too! Two necessary conditions (small venue and downtown). Two options (Jensen or Pembroke), each of which fails to fulfill a different one of the two necessary conditions. So how does D differ from C? They can't both be right! The very subtle difference is that in the stimulus and D, the two options are the only two options. There are two possible building sites. There are two possible concert venues. In C, however, there are other options. Sure, Finch only wants to travel to Bridgeport or Hazelton, but that isn't restrictive in the same way. Perhaps Finch would travel to a place s/he doesn't want to travel if it meets the two necessary conditions because the desire to travel supersedes the desire to go only to those two places. That's not possible in the stimulus or answer choice D, so that makes D the winner.

(E) E doesn't give us two distinct options. Eliminate!

Takeaway/Pattern:
Don't stop reading when you think you've found the right answer. Even the best testtakers frequently find themselves debating between two really strong answers. When this happens in a matching question, try to identify a difference between the answers. It's that difference that will likely make one right and the other wrong.

#officialexplanation

[CameronF406]

You helped me see how D was correct, but after another look I saw more precisely why C is incorrect. The reasoning in the stimulus is "If A then B AND C." The reasoning in answer C is "If A, then B OR C." The contrapositive of the stimulus is "If not B or not C, then not A." This means that if any given location does not meet EITHER of the locations for the shop moving, the shop will not move. The contrapositive of answer C is "If not B and not C, then not A." So, in order for Finch to sufficiently say that Finch will not travel to a given location, that location would need to be expensive AND friend-less. The two locations in answer choice C have one of the conditions, but not both. I don't think the issue of Finch's desired locations and the possibilities of other locations plays as much of a role in answer C being wrong as all that conditional logic stuff does.

[PretzelL30]

I agree with Cameron here in that the fatal difference between C and D appears to be with the "OR" and "AND". Thanks, Cameron.
It's possible that's what the author is trying to say, just in a different manner, and maybe I'm misreading the explanation.