The capture of a wild animal is justified only as a last resort to save that animal's life. But many wild animals are...

Jacob-R on October 24, 2018

Here is how I would go about answering this problem. First, map out the logic.

Capture justified only if last resort.
Many captured to be bred.
Many should not have been captured.

Notice how one gets to that third conclusion sentence. It states that many animals are captured to be bred, and thus we know it was not because it was the last resort. We therefore know that those captures were not justified.

Answer C mirrors that pattern of reasoning.

Punishing justified only if concern for child.
Many children punished to minimize sibling rivalry.
Many children should not have been punished.

I hope this helps. Please let us know if you have further questions.

Shiyi-Zhang on February 11, 2019

Why is D incorrect?

Ravi on February 14, 2019

@Shiyi-Zhang,

Happy to help.

(D) says, "A teacher is entitled to punish a child only if the child’s
parents have explicitly given the teacher the permission to do so. But
many parents never give their child’s teacher the right to punish
their child. Hence, many teachers should not punish their pupils."

This answer choice is very close, as at first, it looks like the
contrapositive is being used to arrive at the conclusion. However, the
wording in the conclusion is off, as it says, "Hence, many teachers
should not punish their pupils."

In the conditional statement in the first sentence, the sufficient
condition is "A teacher is entitled to punish a child."

The conclusion, in saying that many teachers SHOULD NOT punish their
pupils, has wording that's too strong. If it were right, it would say
something to the effect of "teachers are not entitled to punish many
of their pupils." We know that some of the pupils cannot be punished,
but we cannot say that many teachers shouldn't punish any of their
pupils. That's too strong. As a result, we can get rid of (D).

Does this make sense? Let us know if you have any more questions!