Option C or D

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Option C or D

by nishant_1010 » Fri Apr 27, 2007 1:44 am
Q 19 (1000CR--> LSAT 24 -->section IV)

19. Nearly all mail that is correctly addressed arrives at its destination within two business days of being sent. In fact, correctly addressed mail takes longer than this only when it is damaged in transit. Overall, however, most mail arrives three business days or more after being sent.
If the statements above are true, which one of the following must be true?
(A) A large proportion of the mail that is correctly addressed is damaged in transit.
(B) No incorrectly addressed mail arrives within two business days of being sent.
(C) Most mail that arrives within two business days of being sent is correctly addressed.
(D) A large proportion of mail is incorrectly addressed.
(E) More mail arrives within two business days of being sent than arrives between two and three business days after being sent.

Official Answer = D


But according to me answer should be C

My explanation

Consdier the following funda of logical reasoning

X will not happen unless Y happens

This means that there are several things needed for X to happen out of which one is Y. So even if one of these several things is abscent then X will not happen. So it is not guranteed that if Y is there then X will surely happen since some other necessary thing might be abscent.

But is it sure that if X happens then Y must have happened. Because if X has happened then all the several components were there. So Y was also there.


Applying this logic to the problem

Being correctly addressed is one of the components for most of the mails to reach the destination within two days.

So most of the mails which have reached the destination within two days must have been addressed properly. Hence C

For not reaching the destination the two cases are
1. Mail incorrectly addressed
2. Mail damaged during tansit

Even if any one of them occurs then the mail does not reach in 2 days.

Out of these which one is more dominant reason than the other we cannot conclude form the argument.

D says that for not reaching in 2 days being incorrectly addressed is the more dominant factor. Hence D should be incorrect

So according to this logic C should be the correct answer and not D

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by isisalaska » Fri Apr 27, 2007 5:01 am
If most mail arrives three business days or more after being sent means that they were either incorrectly addressed or correctly addressed but damaged.

Passage says: "correctly addressed mail takes longer than this only when it is damaged in transit”
Therefore if overall mail takes 3 business days or more the best explanation is was incorrectly addressed
Isis Alaska