PT120.S1.Q16

PrepTest 120 - Section 1 - Question 16

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Essayist: Many people are hypocritical in that they often pretend to be more morally upright than they really are. ████ █████████ ██ ████████ ██████████ ███ ███████████ ██ █████ █████ ██████ █████ █████████ ████ ███ ██████ ██ ███ ██ ██████ ██████ ███████ ██ ███ █████ █████ ████ █████████ ████████ ███████ █████████ ███ ██████ ████ ████ ██████ ███ ████ ██ █████████ █████ █████████ ████ ██████ ██ ███ ██ ██ █████

Structure: Dichotomy

The essayist starts with a general claim: many people are hypocrites who pretend to be more moral than they really are. The essayist then presents us with a dichotomy of two possible scenarios and their consequences. First, if hypocrites are exposed, then they are embarrassed and they and others are motivated to become better people. Second, if hypocrites are not exposed, people end up believing that most people are good, which motivates most people to actually try to be good.

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16.

The essayist's statements, if true, ████ ████████ ███████ █████ ███ ██ ███ ██████████

a

The existence of █████████ ██████████ ██████ ██ ███████ ████ ██ ███ ██ ███████ ██████████
Incorrect. The stimulus talks about the belief that most people are morally good, not that "no one is morally blameless."
1%
b

The existence of █████████ ██████████ ██████ ██ ████ ███████ ██ ████ ██ █████ ██████████
Correct. (B) fits perfectly with what we pre-phrased above. The essayist suggests that whether hypocrites are exposed or not, the presence of hypocrites encourages people in some way to become morally better.
89%
c

The existence of █████████ ██ ████ ██████ ██████████ ██████ ██ ████ ████ █████ ███████
Incorrect. The stimulus never discusses situations where people are encouraged to fall into moral lapses.
3%
d

The hiding of █████████ ██ █ ██████ ███ ██ ██████████ ██████ ██ ███ ██ ██ ████ ████ ██ ███ ████████ ██ ███

Incorrect. The essayist doesn't provide any basis for comparing the effects of exposing hypocrisy versus hiding it. He just says that both situations encourage people to try to be good.

You might have picked (D) because the essayist talks about "most people" trying to be good if hypocrisy is not exposed, and only talks about the hypocrites "and others" trying to be good in the scenario where hypocrisy is exposed. But the lack of a quantifier in that scenario just means we don't know how many people are encouraged to become good, not that fewer people are encouraged to become good.

6%
e

There is no ████████ █████████ ███ ██████ ██ ███ ██ ██ ████ ████ ███ ████████ ██ ██████████
Incorrect. The author never suggests that exposing hypocrisy is the strongest motivator for people to try to be good.
1%

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