Q1 - If the prinicpal is speaking

[geverett]

It seems to me that he could believe both A and B. Would love some help on this one.

[giladedelman]

Hmm, well, he certainly could believe A or B ... or C, D, or E, for that matter. But our job is of course to figure out which inference is supported.

The principal compares Ms. Smith's son's situation to that of someone caught in a traffic accident: even if you didn't cause the accident, you still have to sit there and freak out and contemplate switching lanes but then once you switch, the lane you were just in starts moving and meanwhile you're sitting there like a fool and --

Sorry, got off topic. Anyway, yeah, the kid has to sit there and suffer even if he didn't cause the problem.

So (B) is pretty obviously supported: the principal clearly thinks the Smith boy may not have been the one throwing the raisins (but he still has to suffer the consequences).

But I don't see any support for (A). Maybe the principal thinks many kids were throwing raisins, but maybe he thinks it was just one kid. He doesn't say anything on the subject of how many kids were involved, so how are we going to make an inference about it?

(C) is incorrect because police activity is totally out of scope.

(D) is no good because the principal doesn't weigh in on knowing who the culprits were.

(E) is out because the principal doesn't talk about deterring future disruptions.

Does that answer your question?

[geverett]

I think this would be the one time where the difference between many and some is being tested. Would this be accurate:

Many = 2-100

Some = 1-100

Smith only says that some were throwing raisins. I think the principle does believe that there was some wrong doing being committed, but was it committed by many or some? I think this question could be said to be testing the difference.

thoughts?

[YiS366]

In this particular question, do we really care about what Ms. Smith says? The Q stem is asking what we can infer from what the Principal says.

Thanks.