2022 CSAT — Q61

Locate. This asks for the best-supported inference: find the safe, entailed implication, not a step the passage merely hints at. The opening sentence — “The majority of people who fail to accumulate money sufficient for their needs, are generally, easily influenced by the opinions of others” — talks about a group: people who fail to accumulate money. For the sentence to make sense, such people must exist.

Test (existential-vs-universal). The minimal, certain implication is existential: there are people who fail to accumulate money (c). Test the over-readings: (a) “most people do not accumulate money” reads “the majority of the failers” as “the majority of all people fail” — a quantifier slide; (b) “most never fail” reverses it; (d) “no need to accumulate” is unrelated.

Eliminate by anatomy. (a) over-states the case — it turns “majority of [those who fail]” into “most people fail.” (b) gets the direction backwards. (d) is a claim the passage never makes. The transferable rule: a phrase like “people who fail to X” entails only that some such people exist — the safe inference is existential, not a claim about the majority of everyone. Key: (c).

“The majority of people who fail to accumulate money sufficient for their needs, are generally, easily influenced by the opinions of others.” — the phrase “people who fail to accumulate money” presupposes that SOME people do fail to accumulate money. (c) “there are people who fail to accumulate money” is exactly that existential implication. (a) “MOST people do not accumulate” overstates — the passage says the majority of the failers, not that most people fail; (b) reverses it; (d) is out of scope → (c).

The sentence describes “the majority of people who fail to accumulate money.” Grammatically and logically, this presupposes a set of people who fail to accumulate — i.e., some such people exist.

• (c) “there are people who fail to accumulate money” is that minimal implication. Correct.
• (a) over-reads “majority of the failers” into “most people fail.”
• (b) reverses the claim.
• (d) is unrelated to the passage.

Answer: (c).

The decisive skill is quantifier scope. “The majority of people who fail to accumulate money” puts “majority” inside the failing group — it says nothing about what fraction of all people fail. The only thing entailed is that the failing group is non-empty: some people fail (c). (a) is the trap that lets “majority” escape its restrictive clause. Keep the quantifier where the sentence puts it. (c).