BREAKING: Target Test Prep releases Brand New 2026 On Demand GMAT prep course

Redeem

Mystery stories often feature a brilliant detective.........

This topic has expert replies
Post new topic Post Reply
Previous Topic Next Topic
User avatar
Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts
Posts: 155
Joined: Mon Dec 13, 2010 11:02 am
Thanked: 3 times

Mystery stories often feature a brilliant detective.........

by towerSpider » Wed Feb 02, 2011 10:29 am
Source: Powerscore

Mystery stories often feature a brilliant detective and the detective's dull companion. Clues are presented in the story, and the companion wrongly infers an inaccurate solution to the mystery using the same clues that the detective uses to deduce the correct solution. Thus, the author's strategy of including the dull companion gives readers a chance to solve the mystery while also diverting them from the correct solution.

Which one of the following is most strongly supported by the information above?

(A) Most mystery stories feature a brilliant detective who solves the mystery presented in the story.

(B) Mystery readers often solve the mystery in a story simply by spotting the mistakes in the reasoning of the detective's dull companion in that story.

(C) Some mystery stories give readers enough clues to infer the correct solution to the mystery.

(D) The actions of the brilliant detective in a mystery story rarely divert readers from the actions of the detective's dull companion.

(E) The detective's dull companion in a mystery story generally uncovers the misleading clues that divert readers from the mystery's correct solution.

Answer: C

My problem:[spoiler]

Powerscore states that A is wrong because "most" IS NOT "often". Can you explain this? In my opinion if X often does Y, then most of X does Y, isn't it logical? Would you gimme example which clarifies that they ARE NOT SAME?[/spoiler]
People are not prisoners of fate, but prisoners of their own mind.
Top
Source: — Critical Reasoning |
User avatar
GMAT Instructor
Posts: 132
Joined: Mon Jan 10, 2011 12:26 pm
Location: New York City
Thanked: 68 times
Followed by:37 members
GMAT Score:780

by Adam@Knewton » Wed Feb 02, 2011 12:50 pm
Very good point -- I was also tempted by (A). The thing is that "most" has a formal logical meaning: it means "more than 50%." Therefore, unless we can clarify that more than half of all the mystery stories in the world match the description in the stimulus, we can't choose (A).

For example, it would be acceptable to say that "NBA players are often over 7 feet in height." There certainly are a lot more 7+ feet people in the NBA than in the regular population! However, it would be inaccurate to say that "most NBA players are over 7 feet in height," since the majority of players aren't.

Similarly, if you see the word "most" in a stimulus, it gives you a lot of information. If I tell you that "Most race-car drivers have one-syllable names," you can deduce that "There are more race-car drivers with one-syllable names than there are with three-syllable names." It's a very powerful word!

Notice the word "some" in the correct answer choice. This is exactly the kind of word you're looking for in an Inference Question (much like the equally good word, "can"). The only formal logical definition of "some" is "more than zero," so as long as we have evidence that one such mystery story matches the description above (we do know this much from the stimulus), it's acceptable.

Takeaways:

1) The words "some" and "can" imply any number, one or more. That's all they imply, so they give very little information if they appear in the stimulus, and are very commonly found in right answers on Inference questions.

2) The word "most" implies greater than half, so if it appears in the stimulus, it tells you a lot, and if it appears in an answer choice, it needs specific evidence to support it.

3) The words "often" and "many" don't really have any formal definition -- don't ascribe to them anything beyond the meaning of "some."
Prep Smarter, Score Higher
www.knewton.com
Top
User avatar
Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts
Posts: 155
Joined: Mon Dec 13, 2010 11:02 am
Thanked: 3 times

by towerSpider » Wed Feb 02, 2011 10:50 pm
hey Adam, thanks.

well, i just want to summarize it.

"most" means more than 50%, e.g. most of Americans are white where "often" is related to "some" e.g. Asian countries often play cricket? often or some could be either 1%, 2%, 50% or even 100%? but "most" is definitely more than 50%?
People are not prisoners of fate, but prisoners of their own mind.
Top
User avatar
GMAT Instructor
Posts: 132
Joined: Mon Jan 10, 2011 12:26 pm
Location: New York City
Thanked: 68 times
Followed by:37 members
GMAT Score:780

by Adam@Knewton » Thu Feb 03, 2011 1:21 pm
towerSpider wrote:hey Adam, thanks.

well, i just want to summarize it.

"most" means more than 50%, e.g. most of Americans are white where "often" is related to "some" e.g. Asian countries often play cricket? often or some could be either 1%, 2%, 50% or even 100%? but "most" is definitely more than 50%?
Yes. "Most" has a formal definition; "Many" and "Often" do not.
Prep Smarter, Score Higher
www.knewton.com
Top
Legendary Member
Posts: 1337
Joined: Sat Dec 27, 2008 6:29 pm
Thanked: 127 times
Followed by:10 members

by Night reader » Thu Feb 03, 2011 2:21 pm
AdamKnewton wrote:
towerSpider wrote:hey Adam, thanks.

well, i just want to summarize it.

"most" means more than 50%, e.g. most of Americans are white where "often" is related to "some" e.g. Asian countries often play cricket? often or some could be either 1%, 2%, 50% or even 100%? but "most" is definitely more than 50%?
Yes. "Most" has a formal definition; "Many" and "Often" do not.
excuse my doubt which I have taken as the favor from the BTG site creators ;)

"most" is a word, and it has defined meaning; "most" is used as a superlative form in comparison (great apologies for lecturing on this).

quick example --> Out of thee people, two people each have 7/25th (28%) sharing in one investment, and the last has 11/25th sharing. The person with the most sharing is one who has 44% (!) <-- not 50% :) are we breaking the logic here? I hope no, because I am using math, which is a logical science

now to our entry; it's indeed very tempting to answer A, which I did before checking the spoiler
why C?

Mystery stories (author generalized here, usually we tend to generalize - here it's opposite, e.g. people often do this and that) often feature a brilliant detective and the detective's dull companion. Clues are presented in the story, and the companion wrongly infers an inaccurate solution to the mystery using the same clues that the detective uses to deduce the correct solution. Thus, the author's strategy of including the dull companion gives readers a chance to solve the mystery while also diverting them from the correct solution.

Which one of the following is most strongly supported by the information above?

(A) Most (quantifier is used, the author's generalization has been broken off, e.g. people usually do this and that VS. most people usually do this and that <-- different) mystery stories feature a brilliant detective who solves the mystery presented in the story.

(B) Mystery readers often solve the mystery in a story simply by spotting the mistakes in the reasoning of the detective's dull companion in that story. (strategy of including the dull companion gives readers a chance to solve the mystery <-- readers try to solve the mystery by themselves without attempt to spot errors in companion's reasoning)

(C) Some mystery stories give readers enough clues to infer the correct solution to the mystery. (I have to admit this CR is very-very tricky OMG, firstly readers are put to make inference which is different from deduction as we know - may be because the usual reader is not considered a detective :) , secondly we are dealing with inference question here-remember the 1st family of questions in CR Bible, the truth lies with the stimuli-premises and conclusion, so we look for the conclusion here...

Thus, the author's strategy of including the dull companion gives readers a chance to solve the mystery while also diverting them from the correct solution

companion's job is making inferences only, which is different from deduction process by detective, so we are prompted by the author to infer, but have ability and opportunity to deduct as well. But can we break this proposition and start deducing? Yes, because it says some mystery stories - not all have the magnitude to switch off the readers' deductive abilities)

(D) The actions of the brilliant detective in a mystery story rarely divert readers from the actions of the detective's dull companion. <-- this one is clearly not supported by the stimuli

(E) The detective's dull companion in a mystery story generally uncovers the misleading clues that divert readers from the mystery's correct solution. <-- the same as D
Top
User avatar
GMAT Instructor
Posts: 15539
Joined: Tue May 25, 2010 12:04 pm
Location: New York, NY
Thanked: 13060 times
Followed by:1906 members
GMAT Score:790

by GMATGuruNY » Fri Feb 04, 2011 7:05 am
Night reader wrote:"most" is a word, and it has defined meaning; "most" is used as a superlative form in comparison (great apologies for lecturing on this).

quick example --> Out of thee people, two people each have 7/25th (28%) sharing in one investment, and the last has 11/25th sharing. The person with the most sharing is one who has 44% (!) <-- not 50% :) are we breaking the logic here? I hope no, because I am using math, which is a logical science
I received a PM asking me to comment.

Your error is in using the word most in two different contexts and assuming that it must mean the same thing in each context. (This sort of error is sometimes tested in LSAT arguments.)

In the example quoted above:
Out of the three people, the investor with 44% does indeed have the most of the three investors. When we compare more than two things, the one with the greatest amount is deemed to have the most.

However, the investor with 44% does not have most of the investment. To have most of the investment, he would need to have more than 50% of the investment. None of the three investors has most of the investment, since none has more than 50%.

So while the investor with 44% has the most of the three investors, he does not have most of the investment.

To expand upon Adam's list of CR lingo:

All means ALL. No exceptions.

None means NONE. No exceptions.

Most means more than half.

Few means fewer than half.

Some means one or more.

Many means -- who knows? What is many to you might not be many to me.

When answering an assumption or inference question, be wary of answer choices that include the words all or none. Assumption and inference questions ask for something that must be true but is not explicitly stated in the passage. It is unlikely that an answer choice that includes such extreme language will have to be true. (There are exceptions, of course.)

When answering a weaken or strengthen question, be wary of answer choices that include some or many. Since these words are not well-defined -- some could mean only one -- answer choices that include them often will not sufficiently weaken or strengthen the conclusion. (Again, there are exceptions.)

Hope this helps!
Private tutor exclusively for the GMAT and GRE, with over 20 years of experience.
Followed here and elsewhere by over 1900 test-takers.
I have worked with students based in the US, Australia, Taiwan, China, Tajikistan, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia -- a long list of countries.
My students have been admitted to HBS, CBS, Tuck, Yale, Stern, Fuqua -- a long list of top programs.

As a tutor, I don't simply teach you how I would approach problems.
I unlock the best way for YOU to solve problems.

For more information, please email me (Mitch Hunt) at [email protected].
Student Review #1
Student Review #2
Student Review #3
Top
User avatar
Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts
Posts: 266
Joined: Fri Sep 19, 2014 4:00 am
Thanked: 4 times
Followed by:1 members

by conquistador » Tue Sep 15, 2015 9:16 am
Adam@Knewton wrote: 2) The word "most" implies greater than half, so if it appears in the stimulus, it tells you a lot, and if it appears in an answer choice, it needs specific evidence to support it.

3) The words "often" and "many" don't really have any formal definition -- don't ascribe to them anything beyond the meaning of "some."
I'm not able to overcome my confusion in which I feel the meaning of the words most , often and many is almost same.
While at-least often and many mean a lot of things, you say they sound nothing beyond some.
Can u please explain?
Top
Post new topic Post Reply
• Page 1 of 1