Self-study
Although it has been suggested that Arton's plays have a strong patriotic flavor, we must recall that, Support at the time of their composition, her country was in anything but a patriotic mood. ████████████ ███ █████ ████ ███ ███████ ███ █████ █████ ████ ████████ ██ █ ███████ ███ ███████ ██████ ██ ███ ██████ ███ ██ ██ ██████████ ███ ██████ █████████ █████ ██ ███ ███████ ████ ███ ████████ ██████████ ██ ███████ ████ ████ ████ ████ ████████ ███████████
Summarize Argument
The author concludes that any patriotism in Arton's plays was meant ironically. He supports this by pointing out that when she wrote them, her country was struggling with high unemployment, food costs, and crime, which led to low general morale and patriotism in the country.
Identify and Describe Flaw
The author draws a conclusion about Arton’s patriotism based on the general morale of her country at the time. In doing so, he assumes that Arton felt the same way about her country as the general population did. But perhaps Arton still felt patriotic, even though general morale and patriotism were low.
19.
The reasoning above is questionable ███████ ██
a
posits an unstated ████████████ ███████ ████████████ ███ █████
The author never claims that unemployment and crime rates in Arton’s country were related to each other. He just says that both were high.
b
takes for granted ████ ███████████████ ██████████ ██ ███ ████████ ███ █ ███████ ██████
The author never assumes that patriotism is not possible for a serious writer, nor does he make any claims about whether Arton is a serious writer. Instead, he argues that straightforward patriotism is not possible in Arton’s work, given the state of her country at the time.
c
takes for granted ████ █████ ███ ███████ ██ ███ ███████████ ████████ ████████ ██ ███ ████
By claiming that the patriotism in Arton’s plays was ironic because of low morale and patriotism in her country, the author assumes that Arton shared the predominant national attitude of her time.
d
overlooks the fact ████ ████ ████████ ███████ ██ █████ ██ ████ ████████████
The author doesn't address this, but it isn’t a flaw in his argument. Some citizens may have prospered despite the high unemployment, but we can’t assume that Arton herself prospered. Either way, (D) fails to address the assumption that Arton shared her country’s general morale.
e
confuses irony with █ ███████ ███████ ██ ██████ ██████
“Irony” and “a general decline in public morale” are used unambiguously to refer to two distinct pieces of the author’s argument.