Self-study
Critic: Support Works of modern literature cannot be tragedies as those of ancient playwrights and storytellers were unless their protagonists are seen as possessing nobility, which endures through the calamities that befall one. ██ ██ ███ ████ ██ ██████ █████ █████████ ███ ██████ ████ █████ █████████ ███ ████████ ██ █████ ██ ██ █████████ ██████████ ███ █ ████████████ ████ ██ ██████████ ██ ██ █ ████████
Summary
The critic concludes that modern literature can’t be tragedies. She bases her argument on two key premises:
(1) Modern tragedies must be seen as possessing noble characters.
(2) People no longer think our actions are governed by fate.
Notable Assumptions
The critic is attempting to take the contrapositive of premise 1 using premise 2, but she makes a critical assumption—if people don’t believe human actions are governed by fate, they won’t see characters as noble.
This is a cookie-cutter argument, so we want this specific assumption to be present in the answer choices.
17.
Which one of the following ██ ██ ██████████ ████████ ██ ███ ████████ █████████
a
Whether or not █ ████ ██ ██████████ ██ █ ███████ ██████ ███ ██████ ██ ███████████████ ██ ███ █████████
This is a classic trap answer choice that preys on the difference between is and ought. Just because being a tragedy shouldn’t depend on the audience doesn’t mean that’s true. And even if being a tragedy does depend on characteristics of the audience, we don’t know what those characteristics are.
b
The belief that █████ █████████ ███ ████████ ██ ████ ██ ██████
It doesn’t matter whether this belief is true or false. We’re looking to link up a belief in fate to nobility, not evaluate whether or not that belief is true.
c
Most plays that ████ ████ ██████████ ██ █████████ ████ ██████████████
This is way too strong, and also irrelevant to our argument. We care about classifying modern works as tragedies, not about reclassifying older works.
d
Those whose endeavors ███ ███ ████████ ██ ████████ ██ ████ ████ ███ ██ ████ ██ ██████████ █████████
The author assumes that a character will not be seen as noble if people don’t think that fate governs their actions, and (D) articulates this assumption. We have no basis to conclude that modern literature can’t be regarded as tragedies without this assumption, so it is necessary.
e
If an ignoble █████████ ██ █ ████ ██ ██████████ ███████ ███████ █ ██████ ██ ████████████ ████ ████ ██ ██████████ ██ ███ █ ████████
The premises have already connected the ideas of nobility and tragedy, so we don’t need more information on that link. We also only have information on whether characters are seen as noble and not whether or not they actually are, so we can’t use this conditional statement.