CR electorate

nauman · Posted: Mon Feb 11, 2008 7:15 pm Post subject: CR electorate

Only if the electorate is moral and intelligent will a democracy function well.
Which one of the following can be logically inferred from the claim above?
(A) If the electorate is moral and intelligent, then a democracy will function well.
(B) Either a democracy does not function well or else the electorate is not moral or not intelligent.
(C) If the electorate is not moral or not intelligent, then a democracy will not function well.
(D) If a democracy does not function well, then the electorate is not moral or not intelligent.
(E) It cannot, at the same time, be true that the electorate is moral and intelligent and that a democracy will not function well.

Could somebody explain the answer?

torontogmat.com · Posted: Tue Feb 12, 2008 8:36 am Post subject: Logic

A --> B is pronounced 'A implies B'. If A is true, then B must be true.

In this case democracy functions well only if the electorate is moral. (D)emocracy --> (M)orality.

In logic, if A --> B, then Not B --> Not A.

Example: If it is raining, I will use an umbrella. R --> U.
Therefore, if I am not using an umbrella, it is not raining. Not U --> Not R.

Therefore we can write:

No Morality implies No Democracy. C.

sankruth · Posted: Tue Feb 12, 2008 9:20 am Post subject: Re: Logic

Stuart Kovinsky · Posted: Tue Feb 12, 2008 2:25 pm Post subject:

TorontoGMAT interpreted the question correctly.

"Only if the electorate is moral and intelligent will a democracy function well."

A moral and intelligent electorate is necessary to the functioning of democracy. Therefore, if we don't have a moral and intelligent electorate, we won't have a well-functioning democracy: choose (c).

To chose (d), we'd have to interpret the original as:

"If the electorate is moral and intelligent, a democracy will function well", which ignores the "only" part of the sentence.

Further, if you interpet the statement that way, both (a) and (e) would also be 100% correct. Since that interpretation leads to 3 correct choices, we know that it can't be right.

nauman · Posted: Sun Feb 17, 2008 10:40 am Post subject:

Thanks for all for detail explanation.