Official Explanation

Argument Construction

Which one of the five answer choices is most reasonable to infer from the information given by Mashika and Salim?

The information given allows us to make various deductive inferences. First, if each segment that significantly supports Ms. Puerta also significantly supports Mr. Quintana, then it follows, based on Mashika's statement, that no segment of the electorate that significantly supports Mr. Quintana also supports Mr. Ramirez. In other words, to support Ms. Puerta implies not supporting Mr. Ramirez; therefore, if the segments supporting Mr. Quintana include all the segments supporting Ms. Puerta, there can be no segments that support both Mr. Ramirez and Mr. Quintana.

However, Salim tells us that there is such a voter segment: at least one segment significantly supports both Mr. Quintana and Mr. Ramirez. From this, it follows that the hypothesis if those segments also provide support to Mr. Quintana must be untrue; in other words, there exists at least one segment of the electorate that significantly supports Ms. Puerta but not Mr. Quintana.

A. We are told that there is a segment that significantly supports both Mr. Quintana and Mr. Ramirez, but this provides no basis for concluding that there is also a segment that significantly supports neither of the two.

B. Correct. The previous explanation indicates that at least one segment supports Ms. Puerta but not Mr. Quintana.

C. If support for Ms. Puerta and support for Mr. Ramirez are mutually exclusive, then this must be false given that we know that at least one segment supports Mr. Ramirez.

D. The information provided indicates that this is false: there is at least one segment that significantly supports Ms. Puerta but not Mr. Quintana.

E. If support for Ms. Puerta and support for Mr. Ramirez are mutually exclusive, then this must be false given that we know that at least some segments support Ms. Puerta.

The correct answer is B.