All of John's friends say they know someone who has smoked 40 cigarettes a day for the past 40 years and yet who is r...

Robby August 25, 2020

Any other possible answers

In trying to get this question correct, I got hung up thinking that it still could be true that all of John's friends are telling the truth and John isn't the person who smokes 40 cigarettes a day for the past 40 years. Although unlikely, the passage doesn't rule out that there are people that John's friends know, that John doesn't know, that fits the description of 40 cigarettes a day for the past 40 years. Is there a flaw in this logic? Thanks!

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shunhe August 26, 2020

Hi @Robby,

Thanks for the question! So unfortunately, that logic doesn’t work here. The key sentence to pay attention to is that “he [John] is not unique among his friends in this respect.” What is “this respect?” Well, the fact that John doesn’t know anyone like that. So the stimulus basically just straight tells us that John doesn’t know anyone like that, and he’s not unique among his friends in not knowing anyone like that, which means at least some of his friends also don’t know anyone like that. So you’re right in that if that last sentence wasn’t there, sure, John’s friends could have friends that John doesn’t have, and they could smoke. But the passage tells us that John isn’t unique among his friends in not knowing anyone who doesn’t smoke.

Hope this helps! Feel free to ask any other questions that you might have.