#15 - Dr. Z: Many of the characterizations of my work

[srcline@noctrl.edu]

Hello

So I do not understand why E is the correct answer for this one. Again, I seem to have problems with MBT questions. So the stimulus says that "Many of the characterizations of my work offered by Dr. Q are imprecise ,

But then E says At least one of Dr. Qs characterizations of Dr. Z's work fails to provide an adequate basis for sound criticism.?
How do we know that there's at least one? Why wouldn't A be also correct. This question is really confusing me.

Thankyou
Sarah

[Emily Haney-Caron]

Hi Sarah,

Think of it like this:
Many of the characterizations are imprecise
The characterizations that are imprecise not provide an adequate basis for criticism

We can therefore assume that at last some of the characterizations do not provide an adequate basis.
A is incorrect because, although we know that some of the characterizations do not provide a sound basis, we have no information at all about whether there are any that do.

[srcline@noctrl.edu]

Hello Emily

Okay, I get why A does not work, but E says at least one? How can we infer this from the stimulus? It says many in the stimulus, wouldnt it be more plausible to infer that some of his works are inadequate?


Thankyou for your explanations
Sarah

[Robert Carroll]

Sarah,

"Some" is the logical opposite of "none". "At least one" means "one or more"; that means "at least one" is the logical opposite of "none". Thus, "some" and "at least one" are synonymous. If you can properly infer "some characterizations", you can also infer "at least one characterization".

Robert Carroll

[ericj_williams]

Hello

So I do not understand why E is the correct answer for this one. Again, I seem to have problems with MBT questions. So the stimulus says that "Many of the characterizations of my work offered by Dr. Q are imprecise ,

But then E says At least one of Dr. Qs characterizations of Dr. Z's work fails to provide an adequate basis for sound criticism.?
How do we know that there's at least one? Why wouldn't A be also correct. This question is really confusing me.

Thankyou
Sarah

Remember that All implies Most implies Some, and some it at least one.