In each question below, a statement is given, followed by two conclusions…
2024
In each question below, a statement is given, followed by two conclusions numbered I & II. You have to assume everything in the statement to be true, then consider the two conclusions together and decide which of them logically follows beyond a reasonable doubt from the information given in the statement.
Statement: After collision of two vessels in the sea all the crewmen and passengers are declared as missing. -A news report
Conclusions:
I. No one from the two vessels has survived after the collision.
II. A few persons from the two vessels may have survived and are missing.
- A.
If only conclusion I follows.
- B.
If only conclusion II follows.
- C.
If either I or II follows.
- D.
If neither I nor II follows,
Show answer & explanation
Correct answer: B
Concept: In Statement-Conclusion reasoning, a conclusion follows only when it is a necessary inference that stays within the statement's own certainty — it must not assert more than what the statement supports. Being declared “missing” is an unresolved status, not a confirmed outcome such as “dead” or “safe”.
Application: The statement only records that everyone aboard was declared missing after the collision — a report of unknown whereabouts, not a casualty count.
Conclusion I claims no one survived — it treats “missing” as equivalent to “dead”. That equivalence is not stated anywhere in the statement, so Conclusion I asserts more certainty than the facts support and does not follow.
Conclusion II states a few persons may have survived and are missing. This adds no new fact — it simply keeps open the possibility already contained in the word “missing”, so Conclusion II follows.
Cross-check: The “either/or” option would apply if the two conclusions were exact complementary alternatives of one binary claim (e.g., “at least X” vs. “at most X”); a certain-death claim and a possible-survival claim are not that kind of strict opposite pair. And the “neither” option would require both conclusions to overreach the statement, but only one of them actually does — the other stays within the statement's own uncertainty.