There is no need for a video explanation here because the question does not contain any major visual aspects. Please follow along the written explanation below:
"Many of the characteristics of my work offered by Dr. Q are imprecise,"
Remember that "many' means "some."
So we will diagram this: "some of the characterizations of Dr. Z's work made by Dr. Q are not precise."
Q1: DrQC-some-not P not P-some-DrQC
"such characterizations do not provide an adequate basis for sound criticism of my work."
We will diagram this as: "if the criticism is not precise, then it does not provide adequate basis for sound criticism."
P1: not P ==> not ABSC ABSC ==> P
Remember that we can connect a Quantifier Statement and a Sufficient and Necessary Statement when the right-hand side variable of the Quantifier Statement is the same as the sufficient condition of the Sufficient and Necessary statement.
So, we can connect Q1 and P1 like so: DrQC-some-not P ==> not ABSC to conclude: DrQC-some-not ABSC, i.e. some of the characterizations of Dr. Z's work done by Dr. Q do not provide an adequate basis for sound criticism of that work.
Since we know that "some" means "at least one," that means that answer choice (E) is our answer.
Hope that clears things up! Please let us know if you have any other questions.
kylaportnoyJune 3, 2017
I understand why E is correct. But I am just wondering if you can immediately eliminate answer choices B and C because they say "all" and the quantifier we are dealing with is "some"?
MehranJune 7, 2017
Yes, you could do that but be aware that an answer choice could have stated, "Imprecise characterizations of Dr. Z's work do not provide an an adequate basis for sound criticism of that work."
This must be true since it is a direct restatement of "such characterizations do not provide an adequate basis for sound criticism of my work" and notice there is no mention of "some."
Let us know if you have any other questions.
SamClark79March 4, 2018
I have watched the lecture on quantifies, when was it stated that many means some? Are there any other words that mean "most" or "some"?
CeciSeptember 17, 2018
Why is A not correct? I narrowed it down to A and E but ended up choosing A because "many" and "some"
CeciSeptember 17, 2018
Oh! Because "At least one" is easier to prove than "some" never mind, sorry to bother!
MehranSeptember 18, 2018
@Ceci just wanted to clarify that the difference between (A) and (E) is not "some" versus "many".
Remember, we treat "many" as "some" so in that regard, these answer choices are identical.
The difference is that (A) says "provide an adequate basis" while (E) says "FAILS to provide an adequate basis."
Hope that helps!
mprezzyDecember 27, 2019
Is there a rule of thumb that can be helpful in dealing with prefixes in passages? An answer to this would be helpful because I have noticed, I answered questions incorrectly in the past not knowing how to correctly handle these words.
NinahBinahJune 15, 2020
I understand everything except one thing: When deconstructing the language so that it can be distilled into an equation, how would I arrive at the following: "...Such characterizations..." = Not precise/imprecise. I have a disability that makes it hard to unscramble certain statements. Help!
