Self-study
Critic: Some writers have questioned Stalin's sanity during his last years. ████ █████████ █████████████ ███ ██████████████ ███ ███████ ██ ██████████ ███ ███████ ████████████████ ███ ██████ ██████ █ ████████ ████ ███████ ██ ███ ██████ ███████ █████ ████████ ██ ███████ ████ █████████████ █████ █████████ ███ ████████ ███████ ███ ███████████ ███ ███ ████ ████████ ██████ █████ █████ ████ ██ ███████ ███████ ██ ███ █████ ███████ ███████████████ ███ ██ ██ █ ██████████████ ██ ████████ ███████ ██ ████ █████ ███ ██████ ████ ██ ██████
Speaker 1 Summary
Some writers think that Stalin's sanity was questionable during his later years. These writers explain Stalin's misdeeds as “paranoia” and “morbid suspiciousness.”
Speaker 2 Summary
The critic comes to the implied conclusion that Stalin’s cruelty was not due to a decline in sanity. One piece of evidence is that Stalin was as cruel in his early years as in his later years. Additionally, all tyrants must be “morbidly suspicious,” because otherwise they would not remain in power.
Objective
We need a statement that the critic and writers disagree on. They disagree whether certain characteristics of Stalin could explain why he was such a cruel leader. The writers think that Stalin’s characteristics could explain his misdeeds, while the critic thinks that Stalin was always a cruel leader.
10.
Which one of the following ████ ██████████ █████████ █ █████ ██ ████████████ ███████ ███ ██████ ███ ███ ████████
a
whether Stalin should ██ ████ ██████ ██ ███ █████ █████ ██████████ ██ ███
Neither the writers nor the critic directly expresses an opinion on this statement. We don’t know whether either believes Stalin should be held guilty.
b
whether Stalin's cruel ████████ ███████ ████████ ██ ██████ ██████████████
The writers and the critics agree on this statement. Both the writers and the critics characterize Stalin as "morbidly suspicious" based on his misdeeds, but they disagree about whether the ultimate reason for those misdeeds was Stalin's sanity.
c
whether it is ████████ █████ ██ ████████ ██ ██████ ███ ███████ ████ █████ ███ ████████ ██████ ███ ████████ ███ ██████
Neither the writers nor the critic expresses an opinion on this statement. No one is trying to determine the best reasons for doubting Stalin's sanity—the disagreement is rather about whether Stalin's sanity is in doubt at all.
d
whether tyranny tends ██ ████ ██ ███████
The writers do not express an opinion on this statement. We don't know if the writers have any opinions about tyranny at all.
e
whether it was ████████ █████████████ █████ ██ ██████ ███ █████████ █████████ ████ ███ ███ ███████ █████ ██ ███ █████ ████████
The critic and the writers disagree on this statement. The writers believe that Stalin’s psychological state of questionable sanity explain his cruel misdeeds, while the critic believes that Stalin’s political status as a tyrant explains his cruel misdeeds.