People are not happy unless they feel that they are needed by others. Most people in modern society, however, can ach...

Skylar on November 3, 2019

@maonuo Happy to help!

The first part of the passage tells us that people are not happy unless they feel needed. This can be diagrammed as: H -> FN. Note that feeling necessary is required for happiness, but not sufficient for it. In other words, one could feel needed but still not be happy.

The second part of the passage tells us that most people in modern society feel needed only in their private lives (with family and friends), since their roles as employees are more replaceable.

(C) states that "most people in modern society are happy in their private lives even if they are not happy in their jobs." The word "are" is what makes this answer choice incorrect. We only know that most people CAN achieve feeling necessary in their private lives, which is PART of what is required to be happy. Therefore, we know that it is POSSIBLE for most people in modern society to achieve happiness in their private lives even if they are not happy in their jobs, but we do not know that they actually DO achieve this.

(E) states that "fewer than a majority of people in modern society can find happiness outside the sphere of private interpersonal relationships." This is correct, because we know that most people in modern society can feel needed only in their private lives. Therefore, less than most (= less than a majority = the some statement that you mentioned) can feel needed outside of their private lives. If they cannot feel needed, then they cannot be happy. (The contrapositive of H -> FN is not FN -> not H). So, less than a majority can achieve happiness outside of their private lives.

Does this make sense? Please let us know if you have any additional questions.

JoshG on May 11, 2020

@Skylar, how did you get from

PMS-most-FN OPL to

NOT FN OPL-some-PMS? Isn't the correct transformation of this quantifier just FN OPL-some-PMS?

Thanks a lot.