Statement: Some books are fiction. All fictional books are popular.

Question

Statement: Some books are fiction. All fictional books are popular.

Conclusions:

I. Some books are popular.

II. All popular things are fiction.

1. A. Only I follows (Correct answer)
2. B. Only II follows
3. C. Both follow
4. D. Neither follows

Correct Answer

Option A — A

Detailed Solution & Explanation

The correct answer is Option A.

Key Points

• Statements: Some books are fiction; all fictional books are popular.
• Conclusion I (some books are popular): follows — the books that are fiction are, by the second statement, popular; so at least some books are popular.
• Conclusion II (all popular things are fiction): does not follow — the premises say fiction ⊂ popular, not the reverse. Popular things may include much that is not fiction.
• So only I follows.

Exam Tip

• 'All A are B' does not give 'All B are A' — direction matters in syllogisms.
• Draw the sets (fiction inside popular) to see which conclusions are valid.

Additional Information

• Represent the syllogism as circles: some books ⊂ fiction, and fiction ⊂ popular, so that overlap carries through and some books are popular must be true.
• Valid moves run from the inner set outwards; reversing a universal ("all fiction is popular" → "all popular is fiction") is never permitted.
• Standard rule set: two particular premises yield no conclusion, two negative premises yield no conclusion, and the conclusion always takes the weaker premise's quality.