Hello, I recently took the Veritas sim2 practice test, and received this question. I appreciate whatever info you could offer, as the explanation was only two sentences.

The vast majority of humans are born with a preference to the right hand and are considered "right-handed." However, some people give preference to their left hand and are thus "left-handed." Therefore, at least a few humans must be ambidextrous
or equally capable with either hand.
Which of the following most accurately describes the passage above?

A. The conclusion given logically follows from the stated premises.
B. Even if the premises are true, the conclusion does not necessarily follow because even ambidextrous individuals give preference to one hand or the other.
C. The conclusion logically follows from the premises so if it is true, we can infer that the premises are also true.
D. The conclusion does not logically follow from the premises, thus nothing of relevance can be inferred.
E. The premises are mutually exclusive and the fact that the conclusion follows them is irrelevant.


the answer is D and the explanation was:
"The conclusion does not follow the premises. The existence of right-handed and left-handed people does not necessitate the existence of ambidextrous people. Eliminate (a) and (c). (b) falls out of scope with the statement concerning ambidextrous people. the premises are not mutually exclusive as indicated in (e).


I thought quite a bit about this, and as easy as this must sound, I had some trouble coming to an answer. I picked A. In my mind (although I know it's now wrong) the statement says that the majority of people are born with a 'right handed' preference. But the next sentence says 'some people GIVE preference to their left...'.

Perhaps I was reading too much into this, but if I am purposely 'giving' preference to my left hand (after I've learned to use my right) then I would be ambidextrous. I didn't like the word 'GIVE' in this stimulus. I can see, in a way, that I might be making an assumption that you would already know how to use your 'right hand', because I might 'give' preference to my left hand from day one. Now, having said all of that, (b) now makes a bit more sense from my previous (wrong) logic.

Either way, I'm just curious if anyone could provide a bit more explanation to this one.

Thanks,


So to me the conclusion logically followed.

The best way to understand this is to look at the information exactly as it is given.

The vast majority of humans are born with a preference to the right hand and are considered "right-handed."
--All this is saying is that most people are right handed.

However, some people give preference to their left hand and are thus "left-handed." -- "Give preference" does not mean that a right handed person is choosing to use his/her left. It just means that they are left-handed.

Therefore, at least a few humans must be ambidextrous or equally capable with either hand.
-- This can't be concluded from what is given.

"most people are right handed" + " some people are left handed" does not equal "a few people are ambidextrous.

-- Veritas Help

Thank you for the explanation.

Either way, if I were ever to read 'Give preference' again, I would still read it the same way. I don't see how you can say " 'Give preference' does not mean that a right handed person is choosing to use his/her left."

Aside from my assumption that the person 'giving preference' already knew how to use their right hand, I would think that "to give preference" would mean to purposely "choose".

If I had two bikes, one road, one mountain, and on Tuesday I gave preference to the road bike. It would mean that I am picking that bike, giving it priority for the day.

Similarly, if I had apple juice and orange juice and I liked both equally well, but today I gave preference to the apple juice, it would mean that I pick the apple juice. Do I like the orange juice? yup, but I gave preference to the other.

In the end, it's just that word 'give'. But I'll take the explanation. Thanks

Be very careful about reading too much in to these problems. Again, base your answer on exactly what is given in the problem. Do not omit, add, or create information that is not there.

Veritas Help