Self-study
Support People should patronize businesses that meet high ethical standards, and Support the news media should help them to patronize those businesses. ██████████ ████ █ ████████ ████████ █ ███████ ███████ ███████ ███ ████ █████ ██████ █████████ ████ █████ ███ ███████ ██ █ ██████████ ███████ ███████ ██ █████ ██████ ██ ████████ ██████ ██ █████████ ████ █████████
Summarize Argument
The author concludes that when a business performs a notably ethical action, the news media should publicize the fact that the business performed that action. This is based on the following premises. People should purchase from businesses that meet high ethical standards. News media should help people to make purchases from business that meet high ethical standards. And, when people learn of a business’s ethical conduct, that often motivates them to purchase from that business.
Notable Assumptions
The author assumes that a business that performed a notably ethical action is a business that “meets high ethical standards.”
26.
Which one of the following, ██ █████ ████ █████████ ███████ ███ █████████
a
Some businesses that ████ ████ ███████ █████████ ██ ███ ████████ ████ █████ ██████████
Having high ethical standards and meeting high ethical standards are different concepts, and the argument isn’t concerned with having high standards. The argument is only concerned with whether performing an ethical action constitutes meeting high ethical standards.
b
Meeting high ethical █████████ ██ █████████ █ ██████ ██ ██████████ ████ █████████ █████████
This points out why performing a notably ethical action doesn’t necessarily constitute meeting high ethical standards. We don’t know whether a business that performs a notably ethical action is refraining from unethical actions, so we don’t know that it’s meeting high standards.
c
It is relatively ████ ███ █ ████████ ██ ████ ███ ███████ █████████ ██ ██ ████ ███ ███ ████ ████ █████
Whether a business sets its own standards and meets its own standards is a separate from whether a business meets high ethical standards. We have no reason to think high standards are based on a business’s own standards.
d
The news media ██ ████ ██████ ██ █████████ █ ██████████ █████████ ███████ ████ ██ ██ ██ █████████ █ ██████████ ███████ ████████
What the news media currently does has no impact on an argument concerning what news media should do. The author concludes that news media should do something; how often they currently do that thing doesn’t impact whether they should do it.
e
Some businesses that ████ ████ ███████ █████████ █████ ███ ██ ██ ██ ████ █████ ███ ██████ ██████████ █████ ███████ █████ ██████████
Profits have no clear connection to the argument. Even if a business is partially concerned with profits when it meets high ethical standards doesn’t change the fact that it meets high ethical standards.