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Steve and JoAnne

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by durgesh79 » Thu Jun 26, 2008 7:33 pm
Steve and JoAnne are both members of a certain club, though they are not speaking to each other. Cecily, the club president, is appointing members to the fundraising committee, but she has resolved that she will not appoint anyone without his or her explicit consent. Steve tells Cecily, 'I will not consent to appointment on that committee unless I know whether JoAnne is to be a member of it.' And JoAnne says, 'I will not consent to be a member of that committee unless I know whether Steve will be appointed to it.' If all three of these people stick by these resolutions, then:

A) Neither of them can be appointed to the committee.

B) The situation described in the scenario cannot arise, because it is inherently incoherent.

C) They must either both be appointed or both be left out.

D) The committee may finally have one of them, both of them, or neither of them as members.

E) Either one of them can be appointed, but not both.
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Source: — Critical Reasoning |

c

by ektamatta » Thu Jun 26, 2008 7:52 pm
is OA choice C?
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by agent47 » Thu Jun 26, 2008 8:41 pm
I am confused between E and B


My point for E
Because JoAnne says, 'I will not consent to be a member of that committee unless I know whether Steve will be appointed to it.'

This means that If steve will be appointed then Joanne will think to join he may or may not be.

My point about B

It is unable to connect that if Steve will be appointed then what Joanne will do ?

What is OA ?
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by swati.sug » Thu Jun 26, 2008 8:42 pm
I think it should be "D' because it i told in which scenario they will accept the offer,but nowhere a scenario is mentioned in which the decision to join the committee is there.
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by P_mashru » Thu Jun 26, 2008 8:56 pm
Answer would be B - its like egg first or chicken type question

what is OA?
I am I
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by atlantic » Fri Jun 27, 2008 3:20 am
Such a diversity of opinions. I'll go with C.
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by niraj_a » Fri Jun 27, 2008 3:37 am
i thought D.....
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by Ian Stewart » Fri Jun 27, 2008 7:24 am
Clearly the situation is 'coherent'. We can certainly imagine it happening, so B is out.

We know that Cecily requires the consent of any member she appoints. We know Steve and JoAnne each need to know whether the other is appointed before accepting an appointment. So it is impossible for Cecily to appoint Steve or JoAnne first; neither will consent. What options are left for Cecily? She can tell either Steve or JoAnne that they will not be appointed. If, say, she tells Steve that he will not be appointed, then JoAnne will know whether Steve is on the committee, and JoAnne can now make her decision. She may agree, or she may not. So we could have a committee with one of the two, or neither, but we cannot have both. E.

edit: Durgesh, I'm curious of the source of the question. It does not resemble any real GMAT CR question I've seen.
For online GMAT math tutoring, or to buy my higher-level Quant books and problem sets, contact me at ianstewartgmat at gmail.com

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by durgesh79 » Fri Jun 27, 2008 1:41 pm
Nice explanation Ian. the OA is E

the question is from one of the tests of 800score.com

below is the OE, (I dint get it)

(E) Because of the resolutions of Steve and JoAnne, neither of them can be appointed before a decision is made about the other one. That rules out making a positive decision to appoint in either case because no such decision could be the FIRST decision. But nothing in the scenario rules out Cecily's first making a negative decision (the decision, say, not to appoint Steve). Then she could inform JoAnne of that fact; JoAnne might then consent to the appointment and thus be appointed. Or, of course, the first negative decision might have been made about JoAnne, resulting in the possible appointment of Steve.
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by SUSHMA50 » Wed Oct 01, 2008 10:28 pm
Hi,

I am not still clear about the answer although Ian has nicely explained it. What in case the person whom Cecily asks says yes. Why cant that be a scenario. In that case I think D should be the answer as nowhere it is mentioned that there will be only one member on the comitee out of these two.

Kindly correct me if I am missing something
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by peter.p.81 » Wed May 11, 2016 2:41 am
The official answer is E. But I don't understand why? Can anyone explain
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