Is "Most", "Many" words are equivalent t

enjoystar

Hi,

Example 1

Statement
All trees are green

Answer choices
a) Some trees are green
b) Many tress are green

Example 2

Statement
All grass is green

Answer choices
a) Some grass is green
b) Most grass is green

Query
which answer choice is equivalent to the statement in the above examples or both the answer choices are incorrect???

The reason behind this query is few days before I faced a CR problem and in its solution it was mentioned that "Many" is same as "All". Is that true that in CR words such as "Most" and "Many" are equivalent to ALL????

- If its true then are there any more words in CR which have same meaning as above??? ex: "More", "Some"

Please clarify my doubts? I know it may be an invalid or silly question. However I am confused at this moment with such words.

Thanks and regards.

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joshi.komal · Posted: Sat Feb 23, 2008 6:06 am Post subject:

Hi enjoystar,

What you are mentioning relates to 'Formal Logic'.(LSAT Reasining bible explains it very well). I am just copying an excerpt from the same.

"
The Logic Ladder details the inherent relationship between all, most, and some:
All ---> Most ------> Some

In the Ladder, each term represents a “rung,” and the upper rung terms automatically imply that the lower
rung terms are known to be true. Thus, if you have an all relationship, you automatically know that the
most and some relationships for that same statement are true. So, if a statement is made that “All waiters
like wine,” then you immediately know that “Most waiters like wine,” and “Some waiters like wine.”
The same is true for most relationships, but to a more limited extent. If “Most waiters like wine,” then you
automatically know that “Some waiters like wine.” But, because most is below all on the Logic Ladder,
you do not know with certainty that “All waiters like wine” (it is possibly true, but not known for certain).
This reveals a truth about the Logic Ladder: the upper rungs automatically imply the lower rungs, but the
lower rungs do not automatically imply the upper rungs. In other words, as you go down the rungs the
lower relationships must be true, but as you go up the rungs the higher relationships might be true but are
not certain. "

Hope this would give you a better understanding of logical relationship among these different words.

Thanks
Komal

enjoystar · Posted: Sat Feb 23, 2008 6:35 am Post subject:

Stuart Kovinsky · Posted: Sat Feb 23, 2008 10:54 am Post subject:

Just a quick word (while I'm between classes):

All does NOT imply many, most or some.

"Many", "most" and "some" are all terms that presuppose existence. For example, when we say that some people eat cheese, that means that there's at least one person who eats cheese.

However, all does NOT presupposed existence. We can rewrite any "all A are B" statement as "if A then B". For example, "all unicorns have one horn" really means "if something is a unicorn, then it has one horn", and doesn't imply that any unicorns actually exist.

So:

"All" means 100%, but is conditional.

"Most" means more than 50%.

"Many" is an unspecified % and could just mean 1.

"Some" means "at least one".

enjoystar · Posted: Sat Feb 23, 2008 11:21 am Post subject:

enjoystar · Posted: Sat Feb 23, 2008 1:24 pm Post subject:

Stuart Kovinsky · Posted: Sat Feb 23, 2008 3:00 pm Post subject:

"Many" does NOT mean "most". The best we can do for many is "more than 1" and some people would even disagree with that (some interpretations equate "many" and "some").

"Few" is even more ambiguous - it has no specific meaning and can be used in different ways.

For example:

"A few people I know like cheese" would likely mean "at least two ... ".

"Few people like pizza with anchovies" means "not that many people like pizza with anchovies", but has no specific number attached, so the best we could do is "not everyone" or "fewer than all people".

The good news is that "few" rarely appears in a context in which we need to be able to translate.

If you could post some specific examples in which you needed to know the difference (most likely from inference questions), I'd be happy to explain them.

enjoystar · Posted: Sat Feb 23, 2008 11:39 pm Post subject: