#25 - If a wig has any handmade components, it is more

[Administrator]

Complete Question Explanation

Justify the Conclusion—SN. The correct answer choice is (A)

This stimulus provides a series of conditional statements, listed below with diagrams:

If a wig has any handmade components, it is more expensive than one with none:

Handmade components more expensive than none

If a wig is made to measure, it ranges from medium priced to expensive:

Made to measure medium- to high-priced

Handmade foundations are never found on wigs that don’t use human hair. In other words, handmade
foundations are found only on wigs that do use human hair.

Handmade foundations wigs with human hair

Any wig that contains human hair should be dry-cleaned:

Wig with human hair should be dry-cleaned

Based on the above premises, the author draws the following conclusion:
All made-to-measure wigs should be dry-cleaned:

Made to measure should be dry-cleaned

Based on the information provided in the stimulus, all we really know about made-to-measure wigs
is that they are medium- to high- priced. The Justify question stem requires that we somehow tie
in the rogue element, “should be dry-cleaned.” The correct answer choice will provide a premise
which, when added to those provided in the stimulus, allows the author to conclude that made to
measure wigs should be dry-cleaned.

Answer choice (A): This is the correct answer choice. This answer provides that if a wig is
medium to high-priced, it has a handmade foundation:

medium- to high- priced handmade

And, the stimulus says that handmade foundations can only be found in wigs with human hair (in
other words, handmade foundations always have human hair):

medium to high handmade human hair

The author also provides that human-hair wigs should all be dry-cleaned:

medium to high handmade human hair dry-cleaned

...And, according to the stimulus, made-to-measure wigs are always medium- to high- priced:

made to measure medium to high handmade human hair dry-cleaned

As reflected in the diagram once we link the relevant conditions, this choice justifies the author’s
conclusion that all made-to-measure wigs should be dry-cleaned:

made to measure dry-cleaned

Answer choice (B): This choice provides the following conditional statement:

Handmade foundation more expensive than non-hand-made

Since this choice does not allow us to link the rogue element “should be dry-cleaned,” it does not
justify the argument in the stimulus.

Answer choice (C): This answer can be diagrammed as follows:

Has handmade components should be dry-cleaned

This choice might be appealing at first, because it does involve the needed element “should be drycleaned.”
However, the stimulus provides no link between a wig having hand-made components and
being made-to-measure, so this choice does not justify the author’s conclusion.

Answer choice (D): The conditional statement provided by this answer choice can be diagrammed as
follows:

Handmade foundation medium-priced or higher

Based on the information in the stimulus we already knew that wigs with handmade foundations are
more expensive than those without; this choice expands somewhat on that information, providing
that such wigs are always medium-priced or higher. Since this choice fails to link the condition
“made to measure” with the condition “should be dry-cleaned,” it cannot be the correct answer
choice to this Justify question.

Answer choice (E): This choice provides that if a wig should be dry-cleaned, it has a foundation that
is handmade:

Should be dry-cleaned foundation that is handmade

[ay514]

Hello,

I was wondering if I could get some help on how one would get to answer choice A in this question. I think the premise was quite difficult for me to understand and I really had no idea how to approach the answer choices and even negating the answer choices kind of left me confused. Help please! Thank you!!

[Steve Stein]

This one can be tricky with all of the conditions listed by the author, and be careful—even though the question uses the word “assumed,” this is actually a Justify the Conclusion question--we need to find the answer choice that is sufficient to justify the conclusion, rather than necessary for the conclusion to be drawn. If we assess rule by rule, it becomes much clearer. The second sentence provides the first relevant rule, which is that custom made wigs are medium to high priced:

custom made --> medium to high $

In the third sentence, the author tells us (in less straightforward way) that handmade foundations are only found on human hair wigs:

handmade --> human hair

…and if it has human hair, we are told, it should be dry cleaned. We can add that to the diagram above, as follows:

handmade --> human hair --> dry clean only

At the end of the paragraph, the author concludes that if a wig is custom-made, it should be dry cleaned:

custom made --> dry clean only

All that we knew previously about custom made wigs was that they were in the medium to high price range. Thus, the correct answer choice must somehow tie together “custom-made” and “dry clean only.” Correct answer choice A provides that medium to high priced wigs are always handmade (medium to high price --> handmade). When we tie this in with the conditions from the stimulus, we get the following:

custom made --> medium to high $ --> handmade --> human hair --> dry clean only

By looking at the diagram above, we can see that this is the answer choice that allows the author’s conclusion to be properly drawn.

[ay514]

Yikes, how can I avoid falling into the trap of assuming that a question like this isn't an assumption question?

[Steve Stein]

That's a good question. Take a look at a few Justify the Conclusion questions, and then take a look at a few Assumption questions. Where the question asks us to find the choice that allows the conclusion to be properly drawn (or sufficient to draw the author's conclusion), we're dealing with a Justify question. When we are asked for the assumption that is necessary to draw the conclusion, we're dealing with an Assumption question.

[afinelli]

I'm having a hard time understanding why the right answer is the right answer. Any explanation would be very helpful!

I am completely lost on how to make sense of the wigs!

Thanks for any help!

[Steve Stein]

Regarding question #25, that one can be tricky with all of the conditions listed by the author, and be careful—even though the question uses the word “assumed,” this is actually a Justify the Conclusion question--we need to find the answer choice that is sufficient to justify the conclusion, rather than necessary for the conclusion to be drawn. If we assess rule by rule, it becomes much clearer. The second sentence provides the first relevant rule, which is that custom made wigs are medium to high priced:

custom made --> medium to high $

In the third sentence, the author tells us (in less straightforward way) that handmade foundations are only found on human hair wigs:

handmade --> human hair

…and if it has human hair, we are told, it should be dry cleaned. We can add that to the diagram above, as follows:

handmade --> human hair --> dry clean only

At the end of the paragraph, the author concludes that if a wig is custom-made, it should be dry cleaned:

custom made --> dry clean only

All that we knew previously about custom made wigs was that they were in the medium to high price range. Thus, the correct answer choice must somehow tie together “custom-made” and “dry clean only.” Correct answer choice A provides that medium to high priced wigs are always handmade (medium to high price --> handmade). When we tie this in with the conditions from the stimulus, we get the following:

custom made --> medium to high $ --> handmade --> human hair --> dry clean only

By looking at the diagram above, we can see that this is the answer choice that allows the author’s conclusion to be properly drawn.

Let me know if that makes sense to you--thanks!

[netherlands]

Hi there PS! I have yet another question (sorry!!).

I've gotten a little better at justify questions. But this one still got me. I'm normally good at the ones that require you to find synonymity between terms and phrases.

In this one I diagrammed as such:

If Handmade Comp more expensive
If made to measure (m2m) Med to Exp

HM Foundation Human Hair should be dry cleaned

and thus, m2m should be dry cleaned. So I diagrammed:

m2m HM Foundation Human Hair should be dry cleaned

maybe though I should have diagrammed it as : m2m Human Hair should be dry cleaned

(either way doesn't help me understand A being the answer. )

Ok... so from that I took away that m2m's are more expensive than non handmade pieces. In which case they're either medium to expensive range and never any less. Is A not a mistaken reversal of this?

A little lost on this one. Sadly! Thank you so much in advance for your help!

[David Boyle]

Hi there PS! I have yet another question (sorry!!).

I've gotten a little better at justify questions. But this one still got me. I'm normally good at the ones that require you to find synonymity between terms and phrases.

In this one I diagrammed as such:

If Handmade Comp more expensive
If made to measure (m2m) Med to Exp

HM Foundation Human Hair should be dry cleaned

and thus, m2m should be dry cleaned. So I diagrammed:

m2m HM Foundation Human Hair should be dry cleaned

maybe though I should have diagrammed it as : m2m Human Hair should be dry cleaned

(either way doesn't help me understand A being the answer. )

Ok... so from that I took away that m2m's are more expensive than non handmade pieces. In which case they're either medium to expensive range and never any less. Is A not a mistaken reversal of this?

A little lost on this one. Sadly! Thank you so much in advance for your help!

Hello netherlands,

You didn't seem to link medium-to-expensive to human hair, which is needed. Choice A does that by saying medium-to-expensive needs a handmade foundation, which, as you noted, necessitates human hair, which needs dry cleaning. So A is indeed correct, not a "mistaken reversal".
Hope that helps,

David

[netherlands]

Hi there!

Apologies for being difficult, but would you mind going a little further into detail - like a step by step process of how you diagrammed it. I'm wondering what part of my process was incorrect that led me to mis-diagram this one.

I appreciate all your help and thank you in advance!