There are circumstances in which it is not immoral to make certain threats, and there are circumstances in which it i...

Mehran on February 3, 2017

@awashing the flaw here is combining two things because they share the necessary condition in common.

"There are circumstances in which it is not immoral to make certain threats . . . "

Sometimes: MCT ==> not IM

" . . . there are circumstances in which it is not immoral to ask for money or some other favor."

Sometimes: A4MorOF ==> not IM

The conclusion is, "there are circumstances in which it is not immoral to ask for money or a favor while making a threat."

Sometimes: A4MorOF & MCT ==> not IM

How can we combine these two? Just because they share the necessary condition, doesn't mean they can be combined.

(A) is not the same flaw as (A) is concluding that if neither a business event nor a social event, casual dress is not likely to be appropriate.

(C), on the other hand, is the exact same flaw.

"It is healthful to take drug A for headache . . ."

DA4H ==> H

". . . it is healthful to take drug B for headache."

DB4H ==> H

The conclusion is, "it is healthful to take drug A together with drug B for a headache."

DA4H & DB4H ==> H

Therefore, (C) would be the correct answer.

Hope that helps! Please let us know if you have any other questions.

wills on March 14, 2019

How did you know that not immoral would be the necessary condition and not the sufficient?

JeremyG on April 6, 2019

@Mehran, is E incorrect because it is combining two things because they share the sufficient condition in common? (As opposed to combining two things because they share the necessary condition, as the passage & answer choice C both do?)

Ravi on May 13, 2019

@wills and @JeremyG,

Great questions.

@wills,

We know that 'not immoral' is in the necessary condition because of
the way the sentences are structured.

"There are circumstances in which it is not immoral to make certain threats"

This means that sometimes making certain threats isn't immoral. Based
on this structure, we know that 'not immoral' goes in the necessary
condition since 'sometimes making certain threats' is what is
triggering the conditional chain (so 'sometimes making certain
threats' goes in the sufficient condition).

"There are circumstances in which it is not immoral to ask for money
or some other favor"

The same holds true for this sentence. Based on this structure, we
know that 'not immoral' goes in the necessary condition since
'ask[ing] for money or some other favor' is what is triggering the
conditional chain (so 'ask[ing] for money or some other favor' goes in
the sufficient condition).

@JeremyG,

(E) says, "The mountain roads are treacherous after it rains, and the
mountain streams are full after a rain. So, if the roads in the
mountains are treacherous, and the mountain streams are full, it
surely has rained recently."

The problem with (E) is that it's the wrong type of flaw. (E) confuses
sufficient and necessary conditions for each other. Raining is a
sufficient condition for making treacherous mountain roads. It's
possible there are other sufficient conditions for making treacherous
mountain roads. We need an answer choice that matches the flaw of the
stimulus (which is trying to combine two things that share a necessary
condition). This is why (E) doesn't work.

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