Self-paced
Support Maude is incessantly engaging in diatribes against people who are materialistic. ███ ███ █████████ ██ ███████ ██ ███ ███████████ █████████ ██ ███ █████ ███ ███████████ ████ ████ ███ █████████ ██ ████ ████ ██ ███ ███████████ ███████ █████ ████████ ███ ██ ████ ███ ██████ ████ ██ █████████ ██ █ ███████ ███ ██████ █████ ██ ████
Summary
The author accuses Maude of being hypocritical for calling others materialistic while being sentimentally attached to a gift from her grandmother.
Notable Assumptions
The argument assumes that Maude’s attachment to the watch must be due to materialism, ignoring other possible explanations—such as sentimental or emotional value. It depends on the assumption that treating an item with care and affection is necessarily a sign of materialism.
4.
Which one of the following ██ ██ ██████████ ██ █████ ███ ████████ ████████
a
Possessions that come ████ █████████ ███ ███████ ████ ██████ ████ ████ █████ ████ ██ ████
How people generally treat possessions from relatives is irrelevant to the question of whether Maude's sentimental attachment to the watch indicates materialism.
b
Sentimental attachment to █ ██████ ██████████ █████████ █████ ██████████████
This must be true in order for the conclusion to follow. The conclusion’s only support is Maude’s sentimental attachment to the watch. If that attachment did not indicate being materialistic, then we would have no reason to think Maude is hypocritical for calling others materialistic.
c
People who care █████ ████████ ██████ ██ ███████ ████ ██ ████ ███████ ████ ██ ███ █████ ████████████
This is irrelevant since the argument only makes a claim about Maude, not any other people.
d
Maude's watch is ███ ███ ████ ████████ █████ ███ ██████████ █████ ████
The argument assumes that Maude’s treatment of the watch shows her to be materialistic. It doesn’t matter if Maude also cares for other things.
e
People who are ███ █████████████ ████ ██ ████ ██████ ███████████ ███████████ ██ ███████
The argument assumes that Maude is materialistic because of her sentimental attachment to something. Another way to phrase this assumption is that people who aren't materialistic would not have sentimental attachments to objects. But (E) claims that people who aren't materialistic do tend to have sentimental attachments. This isn't necessary, because even if people who aren't materialistic don't tend to have sentimental attachments, Maude's feeling of sentimental attachment can still be an indicator of her materialism.