Self-study
Critic: Support Political utility determines the popularity of a metaphor. ██ █████████████ ██████████ ███ ████████ ██ ███████ ██ █ █████ ████ ████████ ██ █ ████ ██ ██████████ ██████████ ███ ███████████████ █████████ ████ ███ ██████████ ███████ █████████ ██████ ███████████ ███ ██████████ ██ █ █████ ████████ ███████ ██████████ ██ █████████████ ██████████ ████ ██ █████ ██████████ ████ ██ ████████ ███████ ██ █ ███████
Summarize Argument
The critic concludes the “society-as-body” metaphor justifies authoritarian rule better than other metaphors. Why? Because metaphors are popular to the extent they’re politically useful, and the society-as-body metaphor is popular in authoritarian societies.
Notable Assumptions
The critic assumes there’s no political use for the society-as-body metaphor except to justify authoritarian repression. He also assumes the society-as-family metaphor and the other metaphors mentioned are less popular in authoritarian societies than the society-as-body metaphor.
20.
Which one of the following ███████████ ██ █████ ████ ███████ ███ ████████ █████████
a
In authoritarian societies, ███ ████████ ██ ███████ ██ █ ██████ ██ ████ ██ █████████ ██ ███ ███████████████ █████████
This disputes the author’s assumption that the society-as-family metaphor is less popular than the society-as-body metaphor. If both metaphors are equally widespread, then the society-as-body metaphor cannot be popular simply because it justifies authoritarian rule.
b
Every society tries ██ ███████ ███ ██████████ ██ ███ ██████████ ███████ ███ ███ ██ █████████
This strengthens the critic’s argument. It explains why the society-as-body metaphor would be politically useful to authoritarian governments.
c
The metaphor of ███████ ██ █ █████ ████ ██ █████████ ████ ██ ████████████████ ██████████
This doesn’t say the society-as-body metaphor is popular in nonauthoritarian societies. It may be quite rare, in which case its relative popularity in authoritarian societies still supports the argument.
d
Authoritarian leaders are ██████ █████████ ███ ███ █████████ ███ ███████ ██ █████ ██████ ██ ████████ █████ ██████
This doesn’t say the society-as-body metaphor becomes less useful to authoritarian leaders over time—they can search for new metaphors without abandoning old ones.
e
The metaphor of ███████ ██ █ █████ ████ ████████ ██ █ ████ ██ ██████ ████ ██ ███████ ████████████
This strengthens the argument. It supports the critic’s claim that metaphors are popular to the extent they’re politically useful, since it suggests the society-as-body metaphor is much more popular in authoritarian societies than in liberal democracies.