Nearly all mail that is correctly addressed arrives at its destination within two business days of being sent. In fac...

BenMingov October 7, 2019

Hi Kath, thanks for the question!

I'm not exactly sure I understand your initial question, if you don't mind can you explain again what your question is?

As for the second part, a large proportion means some. We don't know how large that proportion is, could be 30%, 48%, or 98%. We can't assume it is always more than 50% (most).

Hope this helps!

Kath October 7, 2019

Thank you for the answer! I agree with you that "a large portion of" means "some".

Let me make it more clear of what I said. I think the stimulus leaves open to the possibility that all the mails are correctly addressed. I.e. without any mails incorrectly addressed. The first sentence said nearly all correctly addressed mails are delivered within 2 days. I think "nearly all" means "most", even more than "most", allowing the possibility of "all".so, correctly addressed mail - most - within 2 days. Thus, less than half or none of the correctly addressed mails are delivered more than 2 days.

The conclusion is "a large portion of mails are delivered 3 days or more".

If "a large portion" means "some", could it be all the mails delivered 3 days or more are all the correctly addressed mails which are damaged? It could rule out the possibility that the incorrectly addressed mails ever exist.

However, if it means "most", then most mails are delivered more than 3 days (not within 2 days). So there must be some mails other than the damaged and correctly addressed mails, which is the incorrectly addressed mails.

But I think the "a large portion" means "some". That's why I am confused.

Brett-Lindsay July 14, 2020

I think you're confused because of the term shift: the first premise is "Nearly all mail that is correctly addressed" and the final premise is "most mail."

These are different concepts. It's possible that 99% of mail is not correctly addressed. We have no way of knowing the exact proportion.