#5 - Solicitor: Loux named Zembaty executor of her will.

[ashpine17]

I honestly didn't have a prephase at all before going into the choices...I took out A, C, and D because none of those choices shed any light on whether L would have objected to the farm being transferred to her grandson but I was stuck between B and E. What do I do in this situation? I guess one difference between the two answers is that E makes specific reference to the farm while B is kind of vague...

[Robert Carroll]

ashpine,

I think the issue here is that, regardless of what properties are sold to clear the debts, the value of the property remaining will be the same. It's not as if, by choosing not to sell the farm, Zembaty would have increased the value of the estate - the estate will be the property remaining after enough has been sold to pay off the debts. The debts are static - their value is what it is. So, answer choice (B) gives no reason why the grandson would be better off or worse off with the farm being sold - the value of the estate from which the grandson can be provided is always the same, regardless of what's sold.

Answer choice (E), though, provides a reason why the farm has a specific value to the grandson that makes it less interchangeable with other property. As far as the creditors are concerned, of course, it makes no difference what's sold to pay the debts. But answer choice (E) makes the grandson more likely to want the farm to be part of the remaining estate, weakening the argument.

Robert Carroll

[Mo28_28]

Hi
I chose D because I think if the farm was the main cause of debts, then probably it was something worthwhile for Loux to get herself into debts for it, and thus probably would have had and objection to Zembaty selling it and therefore weakens the argument.
E on the other hand, goes far off of the argument because just because Loux liked her grandson and just because her grandson repeatedly expressed his desire to own a farm( although we don't know if he told her grandmother) doesn't weaken the argument.
I think D isn't perfect but I can't understand how E is the correct answer.
I look forward to hearing from you.

[Dana D]

Hey Mo28,

We always need to follow the argument that the author establishes and weaken off that logic. Here, the conlcusion is that Loux probably wouldn't have an issue to Stoke Farm being sold rather than it going to her grandson. What's the support for saying that? That Loux herself didn't seem to care about Stoke Farm and Zembaty had to sell properties to clear the estate debt.

Now that all makes sense, except for the fact that we are also told that Loux is very fond of her grandson. Using just this information, since this is all we are provided, we could weaken the argument that Loux wouldn't have cared about the sale by saying she would care - she would have wanted her grandson, who loved the farm, to have it. Debts be darned - Loux loved her grandson and therefore would want him to have the farm! Sure answer choice (D) is rational, but we don't know that Loux would have cared about that. We also don't know if Zembaty could have sold 3 other properties and cleared the debt and still given the farm to the grandson, thus appeasing both parties, therefore answer choice (D) does not weaken the argument as much as answer choice (E).

Hope that helps!