Product A is either X or Y. All X are expensive. Some Y are affordable. Which inference is most strongly supported?

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Multiple Choice

Product A is either X or Y. All X are expensive. Some Y are affordable. Which inference is most strongly supported?

Think in terms of the two possibilities for Product A. If A is in X, then A must be expensive. If A is in Y, affordability isn’t guaranteed for every member of Y—we only know that some Y are affordable, so A could be affordable or not depending on whether it happens to be one of those affordable Ys. Since A could end up expensive in the X case or affordable in the Y case, the strongest supported inference is that A could be either expensive or affordable. The other options try to assert certainty about A’s price, but the given information doesn’t fix A to one outcome across the two possibilities.

Think in terms of the two possibilities for Product A. If A is in X, then A must be expensive. If A is in Y, affordability isn’t guaranteed for every member of Y—we only know that some Y are affordable, so A could be affordable or not depending on whether it happens to be one of those affordable Ys. Since A could end up expensive in the X case or affordable in the Y case, the strongest supported inference is that A could be either expensive or affordable. The other options try to assert certainty about A’s price, but the given information doesn’t fix A to one outcome across the two possibilities.

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