People with serious financial problems are so worried about money that they cannot be happy. Their misery makes everyone close to themfamily, friends, and colleaguesunhappy as well. Only if their financial problems are solved can they and those around them be happy. Which one of the following statements can be properly inferred from the passage?
A. Only serious problems make people unhappy.
B. People who solve their serious financial problems will be happy.
C. People who do not have serious financial problems will be happy.
D. If people are unhappy, they have serious financial problems.
E. If people are happy, they do not have serious financial problems
??
OA is E
Solution :This problem is a classic example of how the GMAT attempts to disguise
conditional reasoning. The stimulus can be diagrammed as follows: Sentence
1: SF>~H. Sentence 3: H >~SF. The sufficient condition in the first
sentence is introduced by the phrase people with. The necessary condition
in the third sentence is introduced by the phrase, only if. Note that the third sentence provides the contrapositive of the first sentence. The second
sentence is not conditional and contains only general statements about the
effects of their misery. The question stem uses the word inferred and can
be classified as a Must Be True. When you encounter a stimulus that
contains conditional reasoning and a Must Be True question stem, immediately look for a contrapositive or a repeat form in the answer choices.
In problems with this same combination, avoid Mistaken Reversals and
Mistaken Negations as they are attractive but wrong answer traps. Answer
choice (A): One reason answer choice (A) is incorrect is because it only
refers to serious problems, not serious financial problems as in the stimulus.
Even if the answer correctly referred to serious financial problems, it would
still be incorrect because it would be a Mistaken Reversal of the first
sentence and a Mistaken Negation of the third sentence. Answer choice (B):
The answer choice can be diagrammed ~SF>H. This answer is incorrect
because it is the Mistaken Negation of the first sentence. However, it is also
the Mistaken Reversal of the third sentence, which you should recognize as
the contrapositive of the first statement. This leads to the interesting point
that the Mistaken Negation of a statement and the Mistaken Reversal of the
same statement are contrapositives of each other. This fact reveals how
important it is to diagram conditional statements correctly; otherwise, the
makers of the test can lure you with answer choices which contain
contrapositives of Mistaken Negations or Reversals. Answer choice (C): This
answer choice would be diagrammed the same way as answer choice (B),
and it is incorrect for the same reasons. Answer choice (D): The answer
choice can be diagrammed as ~H>SF. As such, it is the Mistaken Reversal
of the first sentence and also the Mistaken Negation of the third sentence.
Answer choice (E): This is the correct answer. Answer choice (E) is the
contrapositive of the first sentence and a repeat of the third sentence.
I would like to understand conditional Reasoning used in some more detail. If, Only if etc. i request some faculty or experts to give a brief about this.
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