Some games, such as chess and soccer, are competitive and played according to rules, but others, such as children's g...

Skylar on December 15, 2019

@rpark, thanks for your question.

Your confusion likely comes from the fact that the original passage gives two some statements, while (D) gives us one most statement and one some statement. Though this is a minor difference and it's good that you noticed it, it is not significant enough to be of concern. Both (D) and the passage use the same logic otherwise, and they are more comparable than any of the other answer choices.

Let's break down the passage:
P: games - some - competitive AND rules
P: games - some - NOT competitive and NOT rules
C: competitive and rules not essential to games

Let's break down (D):
P: auto - most - gas AND four wheels
P: auto - some - NOT gas and NOT four wheels
C: gas and four wheels not essential to autos

These breakdowns show the same logical features, with the exception of a most statement instead of a some statement. Despite this, (D) is close enough to the passage to be the correct answer when compared to the other answer choices. Remember, the question is only asking for the answer that is "most similar."

Moreover, remember that A - most - B also means A - some - B. This is because "some" is defined as at least one, whereas "most" is more than half. So, if more than half of a group is categorized as something, it follows that at least one must be that thing. Therefore, the statement "auto - most - gas AND four wheels" inherently means "auto - some - gas AND four wheels."

Does that make sense? Please let me know if you have additional questions or would like to walkthrough any of the other answer choices for this question.

aseikhon11 on June 3, 2020

Why not C?

anpaholski on September 22, 2020

Hello, that explanation made sense, but I have 2 questions now.
1. When you said at the end that we can change most to some, didn't the quantifier lesson tell us that to do that we have to reverse the things, too? For example, to change "auto-most-gas and four wheels" we would have to do "gas and four wheels - some - auto"?
2. Since you said it is okay that the answer used "most" vs. the original passage using "some" , does that mean we cannot save time and eliminate answers on parallel reasoning by noting quantifier changes?
Thank you

Emil-Kunkin on August 12 at 01:59AM

C is wrong because it does not have the same structure where it tells us that a subset of a general set have some trait, but another subset do not have that trait. This is the core of the argument, and from this we can conclude that since there are some members of the set that lack the trait, the trait is not essential to the overall set. C lacks this.


We are not changing most to some as in rephrasing the argument, the most and the some are not actually relevant to the argument. Its not important if its 1 percent 55 percent, or 99 percent, the point is that it is possible to have an example with a trait, or without it, so the trait must not be essential to belonging to that category.