In order for life to exist on the recently discovered planet P23, there must be water on the planet's surface. But th...

Lucas on December 20, 2019

Help please

I ended up picking C based on my diagramming, but was not 100% on this question. was stuck between B & C

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BenMingov on December 20, 2019

Hi Lucas,

For these parallel questions, we need to pick the answer choice that has the same logical structure as the passage.

The passage in this question provides a conditional statement and concludes it's contrapositive. This is completely valid. As such, we should be looking for an argument that validly concludes the contrapositive of a conditional statement.

The passage can be diagrammed as follows:

Premise: LEP23 - > WPS (In essence, A - > B)
Conclusion: Not WPS - > Not LEP23 (In essence, Not B - > Not A)

Answer choice C diagrammed:

Premise: PID - > BND (A - > B)
Conclusion: Not BND - > Not PID (Not B - > A)

This matches exactly.

Now let's examine answer choice B.

It repeatedly includes ideas of probability. The ideas represented by the words "might", "probability", "not necessarily" are not included in the original passage that we are trying to parallel. It does not conclude the contrapositive of a premise.

I hope this helps. Please let me know if you have any other questions.