Q7 - Every adult male woolly monkey

[justindebouvier7]

In an attempt to help myself, and others in the future, the problem can be diagrammed in the following manner.

Sentence one states:
Adult male woolly monkey larger---->largest female woolly monkey.

Sentence two states:
Adult male---> Dominates female.

Contrapositive:
~Dominate female--->~Adult male
Since this is a must be true question, the answer will most likely lie in either the diagram above or in the contrapositive

A: Unsupported.Could be true but not stated within the text. Eliminate!
B: Unsupported. This as well could be true, BUT, we aren't sure of this so let's get rid of it!
C: Although this answer choice may be tempting, if we look closer at the answer choice is states that is is just a male woolly monkey. We don't know if adolescent male woolly males are capable of dominating female woolly males or even if size is the determinant of who dominates. Since this leaves us with too much uncertainty, in addition to not supported in the text, let's get rid of it!
D: Bingo! Looks like it hit the contrapositive in the second sentence right on the spot!
E: This contradicts the stimulus because it states in the text that the adult male woolly monkey will dominate ANY female regardless if it is adult or not.

HTH

[tommywallach]

Hey Justin,

Really great work here. Always good to see how someone takes on a question from top to bottom. Just for fun, I wanted to add a few little things.

#1: Don't divide into sentences, because the order is immaterial. Just do the translation.

#2: Try to paraphrase. The first sentence can be Adult Male WM --> larger than Female WM

#3: For answer choice (B), it's worth explaining that the problem is we don't know anything about adolescent, males, only adults.

#4: I wouldn't say (D) totally hits the contrapositive. The contrapositive would be: "If it can't dominate a female, it's not a male." Answer choice (D) says "If a female dominates a male, the dominated male is not an adult." It's actually playing off the first premise, not the second.

Otherwise, totally awesome!

-t

[chrisstepanian]

My diagram was different because I'm using the powerscore method of diagramming: Dominates females <--- Adult male woolly ---> Larger than any female woolly. Using this diagram, or any other diagram for that matter, does not lead to D, which is stumping me, because D is clearly correct. These are the inferences I made: Some dominated females are the largest female woollys and vice versa; if it can't dominate a female woolly, then it is not adult male woolly; if it is not larger than a female woolly, then it is not an adult male woolly. Did I miss anything?

As I look at the inferences and compare them to D, the only thing that closely resembles D is my second inference, which states that if it can't dominate a female woolly, then it is not an adult male woolly.

[ohthatpatrick]

Your 2nd inference is correct.

If you're an adult male, you will dominate any female.
If the female is not being dominated, then you're not an adult male.

That's what (D) is saying. Make sure you keep in mind this danger of diagramming. Don't get too attached to a mechanical, robotic reading of the rule / contrapositive.

Knowing that "If you don't dominate every female, you're not an adult male" is enough knowledge to sign off on (D).

Think a little more about the meaning of rule so that you're not stuck looking for a direct match.

Hope this helps.

[ShukhratjonO222]

Dear ManhattanPrep team,

I hope for your help,

For D) answer choice to be true, It has to be assumed that there is no neutral relationship among WMs and that in any given moment there is a domination either by male or female WM. Am I right?

The reason why I think so is that in order to infer the contrapositive of D (If adult male --> female will not dominate) from the the second premise (adult male --> dominate any female), one should assume that in any given case someone has to dominate.

Is this thread correct?

Any help would be much appreciated!

Thanks!