PrepTest 14 - Section 1 - Question 8 | Explanation & Discussion

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Prominent business executives often play active roles in United States presidential campaigns as fund-raisers or backroom strategists, but few actually seek to become president themselves. ██████████ ███████ ███ █████ ████████ ██ █████ ███ ████ ██████ ██ ██████ █████████ ████ ████ ████████ ████████ ████████ ██ █████████ ████████████ ████ ██ ███████████████ ███ ███ ███████████ ███ ██████ ████ ████ ███ ███████ ██ ████████ ██ ███ ████ ███ ███████ ██ █████████ ████████ ██ ███████ █████████████ ███████ ████████ ██ █████████████ ██ █ ███████ ████████ ██████████ ████ ██ ██ █████████████ ████ ███████████ ███ ██████████████ █████ ███ ████████ ██ █████████

Summary: Phenomenon-Hypothesis

The author comments on a phenomenon: even though business executives often play a part in US presidential campaigns behind the scenes, they don't often run for president themselves. Most of the people who have run for president have come from law, politics, or the military, not from business. The author argues that this phenomenon is "understandable," hypothesizing that the skills and personality suited to business aren't suited to politics. Specifically, business executives aren't comfortable with having to compromise and share power, which are essential skills for politics, because business is more hierarchical, while politics is "coordinative."

Which one of the following, ██ █████ ████ █████████ ███████ ███ ████████ ███████████ ██ ███ ████████ ██████████ ██ ███ ███ ███ ██████████

Question Type

Weaken

The author's explanation for why so few business executives run for president is that the basic skills and personality that equip someone for success in the hierarchical world of business are not suited for success in politics, which requires compromise and sharing power. A good way to weaken this explanation would be to provide counterexamples (e.g., cases where "hierarchical" skills actually led to success in politics) or an alternative explanation for why so few business executives run for president. There could be some other factor, rather than their personality or skills, that explains why they don't run for president — maybe most business executives are just too busy with their companies to run for president.

Many of the ████ ██████ ████████████ ████████████ ███ ████████ ███████████ ███ ██████████ ████████████

Incorrect. We're interested in people running for president, not people serving as fund-raisers and backroom strategists. If you picked (A), maybe you thought that it showed that politicians could succeed in areas where business executives also succeed, since business executives often also serve as fund-raisers and backroom strategists.

But even if (A) showed this, that wouldn't necessarily weaken the argument. The author argues that business executives aren't comfortable with the coordinative skills required for politics, but this doesn't necessarily cut both ways: politicians could still be comfortable with some of the hierarchical skills required for business. And we don't know what kind of skills being a fund-raiser and backroom strategist requires, anyway.

And if you thought that (A) was suggesting that some fund-raisers and backroom strategists are both business executives and politicians, we don't know that for sure, nor do we know if they are successful politicians, which is what the author's argument is talking about. So (A) doesn't weaken the argument.

10%

Military leaders are █████████ ██ ████ ███████████ ████ ███████████ ███ █████████████ ████ ███ ████████ ███████████

Correct. This provides a case where another group that is from a hierarchical environment (the military) and is also uncomfortable with "compromises and power-sharing" nevertheless makes up a good portion of the people who have historically run for president. This undermines the author's explanation for why so few business executives run for president. If the author's explanation were correct, we would also expect very few military leaders to run for president, which is not the case.

83%

Some of the ██████ ██████ ██ ██████ █ ██████████ ██████ ███ █████████ ████ ████ ██ █████ ██████ ██ ██████ █ ██████████ ████████ ███████

Incorrect. The fact that some of the skills needed for success in law are just "different" from those needed to succeed in the military doesn't tell us anything. For this to be relevant to the author's explanation, we would need to know if these skills are "hierarchical" or "coordinative" in nature, and how that difference (if any) affects the likelihood of running for president.

Some former presidents ████ ███████ ██ ████████ ████████ █████ ███████ ███████

Incorrect. For all we know, while business executives are uncomfortable with politics, politicians could still be fine going into business. And the author's argument isn't about just "engaging in" business and politics, it's about being successful in business and politics. We don't know if these presidents were successful in their business ventures.

Some hierarchically structured █████████ ████ ████ █████ █████████ ██████████ ██ ██████████ ███ ██████████

Incorrect. The argument is about business executives running for president, not about companies successfully supporting presidential candidates.

PrepTest 14 - Section 1 - Question 8

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