Tuesday, February 16, 2010

PERSIAN SHRUG

Happy Mardi Gras everybody!

Here’s the face that has at last launched my wish for John McCain to win an election...



A pal of mine studying for the LSAT sent me this rather splendid test question…

14. Some of the world's most beautiful cats are Persian cats. However, it must be acknowledged that all Persian cats are pompous, and pompous cats are invariably irritating.

If the statements above are true, each of the following must also be true EXCEPT:

A: Some of the world's most beautiful cats are irritating.

B: Some irritating cats are among the world's most beautiful cats.

C: Any cat that is not irritating is not a Persian cat.

D: Some pompous cats are among the world's most beautiful cats.

E: Some irritating and beautiful cats are not Persian cats.

(To what case law does this relate? Fluffy v. Fido Enterprises Ltd.?)



Anyway, as word problems have always been a nightmare for me, it wasn’t with much confidence that I guessed—but I got it right!

Any other takers?

3 comments:

  1. I'll say "c".

    You can solve this by following each sentence through to the logical application, or simply concede that all cats, Persian or otherwise, are truly irritating.

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  2. i'm going with e. hey, look: i'm on your blogroll! thanks.

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  3. e is correct; still possibly a true statement, but the only one that isn't certainly true under the conditions of the problem.

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