#10 - Local, Except

[Administrator]

Complete Question Explanation
(The complete setup for this game can be found here: lsat/viewtopic.php?t=8568)

The correct answer choice is (E)

The question stem establishes that Y is not on the team. From the contrapositive of the third rule, W cannot be on the team. This eliminates two of the eight candidates for the research team. Because at least four employees must always be chosen for the team, only two more employees could be eliminated before a problem would arise with obtaining sufficient numbers for the team.

As we know from the discussion during the setup, if M is on the team then three other employees are eliminated from the team: O, P, and S. Thus, if Y is not on the team, then M cannot be on the team, and answer choice (E) is correct.

Note that the five answer choices are presented in reverse alphabetical order. This is extremely rare—answer choices are almost always presented in alphabetical order. This is an immediate tip-off that if you are working through each answer, you might want to start with answer choice (E) and work backwards.

[ava17]

Is it valid to see answer choice B from Q8, and therefore eliminate A-D for Q10? I just want to make sure I am not making an incorrect inference.

[Brook Miscoski]

Ava,

You are noticing that the correct response to #8 shows that OPTZ can be on the team without Y. Then, #10 asks us to assume that Y is not on the team and pick the person who therefore also cannot be on the team. You are correct that you can eliminate choices A-D since we already know those people can be on the team without Y (i.e., they are not dragged off the team by Y's absence).

It's somewhat harder without realizing that. You would need to realize that Y and M out together drag (including themselves) 5 people out of the team, but the team needs at least 4.