看不懂题[DS] half the 20 directors .. two-thirds majority

pengxiaomi

at consolidate Foundries, for a resolution to become policy, a quorum of at least half the 20 directors must pass the resolution by at least a two-thirds majority. At a meeting of the board of directors, did resolution X pass or fail

1) The directors voted for the resolution

2) Seven directors voted against the resolution

NN们：

由于本人读经济的，大概猜到它想说什么，就是什么投票选举权，超过多少2/3 通过什么什么的，但是题目好像看上去很别扭啊，

“at least half the 20 directors must pass the resolution by at least a two-thirds majority”到底在说什么？ 我的理解是 至少20个董事中的一半必须支持至少三分之二的大多数, 但是三分之二是什么的三分之二？ 反正就是听上去别扭，所以请NN指教，谢谢

pengxiaomi

为什么没有人回复ni～～～～

RTP

http://www.beatthegmat.com/did-the-resolution-x-pass-or-fail-t39220.html

炒个答案给你 不错的解释

There are two types of DS questions: value and yes/no. Of the roughly 15 DS questions you'll likely see on test day, about 2/3 will be value and 1/3 will be yes/no.

Yes/no questions are the ones that are often conceptually more difficult. Here's what you need to remember:

for a statement to be sufficient on a yes/no question, it must give you a DEFINITE answer. If you can answer "definitely yes" OR "definitely no", the statement is sufficient; if you can only answer "maybe" or "sometimes" or "I'm not sure", the statement is insufficient.

Let's look at this specific question:

"At a meeting of the board of directors, did resolution X pass or fail?"

"Did" in the question means the possible answers are "yes it did" or "no it didn't". If we can get a definite answer, we have sufficiency.

Step 1 of the Kaplan Method for DS: focus on the question stem.

To pass, we must have at least half of the 20 directors present and at least 2/3 of those present must vote yes.

So, what do we need? Information about the attendees and/or the way the voted.

Step 2 of the Kaplan Method for DS: consider each statement by itself, in conjuction with the question stem.

(1) 10 directors voted for the resolution.

First thing we note: no info about the number who attended.

We know that up to 20 could attend. We do have our quorum (10/20), so let's see if we have our 2/3s majority.

If exactly 10 attend, we have 10/10... that's a pass.
If all 20 attend, we only have 10/20... that's a fail.

So, the answer to the question is "we're not sure if it passed"... insufficient.

(2) 7 directors voted against the resolution.

First thing we note: no info about the number who attended.

We know that up to 20 could attend. We do not yet have our quorum (10/20), so it's certainly possible that the resolution does not pass.

Let's look at the extreme situations:

Only 7 showed up... no quorum, resolution doen't pass.
All 20 showed up... quorum; 13/20 vote yes. Is 13/20 at least 2/3? No! Therefore, even if all 20 showed up, the resolution still doesn't pass.

Accordingly, statement (2) tells us that the resolution definitely DID NOT pass: sufficient.

Step 3 of the Kaplan Method for DS: if necessary, combine the statements.

Here, statement (2) alone was sufficient... no need to combine.

(2) is sufficient, (1) isn't: choose (B).