Planetary bodies differ from one another in their composition, but most of those in the Solar System have solid surfa...

Dalaal February 28, 2020

Diagramming the passage

So I ended up choosing the correct answer, but I had a somewhat different diagram of the passage than the one explained by Mehran. I diagrammed the third sentence as: Solid Surface & not surface renewed ---> Heavy w/ meteorite craters; and diagrammed the fifth sentence as: Planetary bodies -some- Solid Ice Surfaces & not Heavy w/meteorite craters. Having these diagrams in front of me was an obstacle to seeing the deductions made by Mehran. That is because these conditional statements included the extra variables of (solid surface) in the third diagram and the variable (solid ice surface) in the fifth. Therefore, I did not combine them with the "some" statement. I also diagrammed answer choice C as Volcanic action -some- solid ice surface. I am not sure what I do wrong in my analysis to come up with these extra variables in my conditional statements. Any advice would be much appreciated.

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SamA February 29, 2020

Hello @Dalaal,

I think your diagram of the third sentence is just fine.

SS and not R - - - - - - - -> HMC

Your diagram of the last sentence was also valid!

PB - - some - - SIS and not HMC

The problem is that they were able to distract you a little bit with the word "icy." It doesn't really matter if it is icy, because we don't have any rules pertaining to icy surfaces. A solid icy surface is still a solid surface, which means that the previous rules apply. This is how you should have connected those the premises.

This is a good lesson for you. They will sometimes present a variable that is not necessarily relevant, in an effort to distract you from what you know. On must be true questions, pay attention to what you know for certain. What do we know for certain about solid icy surfaces? That they are solid. If they are not heavily pockmarked with craters, then they are renewed. If they are renewed, then they have volcanic action.

Justitia2020 April 24, 2020

Thank you for making this point about the icy surfaces as this was distracting me. Now it makes sense.

Paytonjd February 2, 2023

I also had the same diagramming issues, and wasted time trying to figure out which/how variables were relevant. With the way the 3rd sentence is phrased, I don't see how we're NOT supposed to diagram it as "SS AND not R - - - - - - - -> HMC." It looks like it HAS to be diagrammed that way to me, which unnecessarily makes it more complicated. Can you explain why that's not the case, and how to know when the use of "and"/certain variables is a distraction?

Emil-Kunkin February 11, 2023

Hi, I'm pretty sure that the third sentence is saying exactly what you have: that if SS and NR, then pockmarks. That said, I don't think there are any general rules for when an "and" is a distraction. Must be true questions are just testing your ability to recognize what is proven by the passage, and a complex passage like this will prove more than one thing. I think it's more important (once you're confident that you understand the passage) that as you go through answer choices, you are able to answer whether each one is proved by the passage.