Most large nurseries sell raspberry plants primarily to commercial raspberry growers and sell only plants that are gu...

Annie on November 18, 2019

Hi @tomgbean,

This question asks "which of the following is most strongly supported by the information above." Essentially, that means it's asking you to find the answer choice which is the conclusion for the argument provided. On all logical reasoning questions, I like to start by breaking down the argument provided. Here we have:

Premise: Most large nurseries sell raspberries primarily to commercial growers.
Premise: Most large nurseries only sell guaranteed disease free plants.
Premise: Johnson's shipment of raspberries from Wally's Plants carried a common virus.
Conclusion: ??

Answer Choices:
(B) is incorrect. This answer choice makes a conclusion about both Johnson and Wally's Plants. First, it concludes that Johnson is not a commercial grower. Second, it concludes that Wally's Plants must be a large nursery, as otherwise there would be no need to make the assumption that they raspberries they sell are disease free. The problem with this answer choice is the first conclusion. We don't know that if you get plants with a virus, you're not a commercial grower. The premises don't tell us anything about non-commercial growers.

(E) is correct. This answer choice connects the premises 2 and 3. We know that Wally's Plants sold raspberries with a virus. Therefore, if it's a large nursery (as this answer choice says), then per premise 2 it sold plants that didn't conform to its guarantee.

tomgbean on November 18, 2019

So E is correct because we don't have to make any assumptions about Johnson or Wally. The conditional statement that states 'if Wally is a large nursery," is sufficient to conclude that the products delivered is not as promised. What got me confused is I think I mixed up the "most large nurseries sell primarily to commercial growers" with the idea that "most large nurseries promise disease free raspberries." The fact that they are a large nursery is sufficient for them only delivering disease free raspberries.

Skylar on November 22, 2019

@tomgbean That is correct. Please let us know if you have any additional questions!