June 2010 LSAT Section 5 Question 18

Based on the passage, it can be concluded that the author and Broyles-González hold essentially the same attitude toward

Mazen on March 13, 2020

Example 6: Please Help with second sentence of stimulus

Hello, The video explanation states that the phrase "these people" in the second statement of the stimulus refer to "people who invest in the stock market." I thought it refers not only "people who invest in the stock market," but to "people who invest in the stock market without doing any research of their own." In other words, I incorporated in my diagram of the "these people" the variable "without doing any research of their own." Please help me understand why we ought to omit "without doing any research of they own" from the definition of "these people," especially since had the following statements been general sufficient-necessary principles with a common sufficient variable, the deductions would have affected the answer choice. Is it wrong to define "these people" as "people who invest in the stock market without doing any research of their own," as opposed to defining "these people" as only "people who invest in the sock market"? Thank you

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Ravi on March 15, 2020

@Mazen,

I would consider the "some" phrase in the second sentence to be
describing the investors who don't do any of their own research.
Here's how I'd break down the argument.

investors - m - >no research
no research - some - broker advice
no research - some - hunches
investors - some - sometimes research, sometimes not
investors - m - >profit

Remember that you can't combine two "some" statements. You also can't
combine a "most" statement with a "some" statement.

However, you can combine two "most" statements when the same item
appears on the sufficient side of both of the "most" statements.

We know that over half of investors do no research of their own, and
we also know that more than half of investors make money

investors - m - >no research
investors - m - >profit

so it has to be true that some investors who don't do any research of
their own make money.

(A) gives us this, so it's the correct answer.

Does this make sense? Let us know if you have any questions!