High School Placement Test (HSPT) Practice Test

Terry has won more races than Bill. Bill has won more races than Luis. Terry has won fewer races than Luis. If the first 2 sentences are true, the third is:

1. true

2. false

3. uncertain

4. none of the above

The correct answer is: false

In this scenario, we have three individuals: Terry, Bill, and Luis, with statements indicating their race wins relative to each other. The first two sentences establish the following relationships: 1. Terry has won more races than Bill, which can be represented as T > B (where T is Terry's wins and B is Bill's wins). 2. Bill has won more races than Luis, which translates to B > L (where L is Luis' wins). From these, we can infer a chain of victories: since T > B and B > L, this leads to the conclusion that T > B > L, meaning Terry has won the most races, followed by Bill, and then Luis has the fewest. The third sentence, however, states that Terry has won fewer races than Luis, or T < L. This directly contradicts the established relationship where T is greater than B and B is greater than L. Thus, if the first two sentences are true, the third statement cannot also be true. Therefore, the correct assertion is that the third sentence is false because it is inconsistent with the information provided by the first two sentences.